
llflllfMtti 




I woo \m.. 



Class__Fi_15. 
Book._ 



-(^•^ 



CopightN^_ 

CQF:fRIUHT DEPOSm 



The 

ROMANCE 

of 

OKLAHOMA 



OKLAHOMA AUTHORS' CLUB 



Oklahoma City 
1920 






Copyrgiht 1920 

by 

Oklahoma Authors Club 



jAN 10 1921 
0)CU605598 



FOREWORD. 

Romance is an elusive, fairy thing; a twin-sister to 
Truth, and bearing such resemblance, that often they 
are scarcely to be distinguished; and like Truth, she is 
one of the Infinities, albeit lesser, standing a step lower 
by the throne of the Great Infinite. Romance is the 
dreams of men come true ; nay, was not the creation, the 
geatest romance of all, merely the fulfilment of the 
God-dream? 

Romance has the Midas touch — greater, indeed, for 
the caress of her fingers leaves behind it jewels of rare 
and splendid luster that shine with a thousand rays. 

Look indulgently, then, upon the shortcomings of 
this book; for finite cannot compass the infinite. Some 
few jewels we have gathered from the splendid casket 
of our State, and give them to your view. Romance has 
loved Oklahoma, and has bestowed on her wealth be- 
yond our telling. With what we have told, we hope you 
may be pleased. 

In writing history, no one can claim originality. We 
have tried to make this book authentic ; and for our ma- 
terial, we have perforce gone over ground that has been 
written of by others. 

The Committee wish to acknowledge their indebt- 
edness to Mr. J. B. Thoburn's History of Oklahoma; to 
the Catholic Encyclopedia; to Mr. George Bird Grinnell, 
author of Pawnee Folk Tales; to Mr. O. D. Halsell; to 
Mr. Selywn Douglas for his appropriate cover design ; to 
Hon. Wm. Tilghman for the loan of pictures from his 
collection ; and to various other persons who assisted 
the Club in securing hitherto unwritten material. 

— Editorial Committee. 
Oklahoma City, 
April, 1920. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I. 

The Prairie Genoa Morris ' 1 

Wind Song, Poem ZOE A. Tilghman 3 

The First Footsteps ^OE A. Tilghman 4 

CHAPTER 11. 

Cheyenne War Song, Poem.^OE A. Tilghman 13 

Aborigines Mary Nagle 14 

CHAPTER III. 
A Ranchman of Oklahoma. ..0. D. Halsell 28 

CHAPTER IV. 

"Happij Fancy" Kate W. Searcy 32 

The Possession Caroline Cain Durkee 33 

Pioneer Schools Adele Hart Brown 42 

CHAPTER V. 

The Light of The Cross Mrs. Verner Early 46 

The Triumph of the Law...ZoE A. Tilghman 59 

CHAPTER VI. 

Under Seven Flags Adele Hart Brown 67 

The Chisholm Trail Ada Pitzer Slocum 71 

In the New Territory Ada Pitzer Slocum 75 

CHAPTER VII. 

Growth of Oklahoma City..BERTKA. M. Coombs — 79 

Antelope's Sorrow Pearl Futrell Hillman.... 81 

Painting the Goats Bee C. Brooks 82 

The Pin Indians Bee C. Brooks 83 

A Young Financier Isabel Eastman Styll 83 

Help! Help! Annette Blackburn Ehler 83 

Selling His Dog Dr. J. W. EcHOLS : 84 

The Honor of the West - 85 

Primitive Court Days Adele Hart Brown 85 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PRAIRIE. 
By Genoa Morris. 

The poets of the world have left to us a limitless legacy 
of symbolism, through which we may comprehend man's 
conquest of the primitive earth, and the story of its trans- 
formation into beauty and usefulness is coeval with all 
religious history. These are two streams with a single 
source. 

There, for instance, is the vast American Prairie; 
crude, elemental, sublime; awaiting in pristine innocence 
the Will that can develop her. Long, oh, long has she 
slept! Cycle upon cycle has rolled over her fast bound 
in savage lethargy. But now, behold: asubtle stirring of 
the torpid heart; a slow lightening of the stony counte- 
nance ! 

Is not this Aphrodite, risen in dishevelled beauty from 
the sea, inviting discovery by dull-eyed mortals? Or is it 
not Eve — for "Eve" means "Life" — tarrying in the wil- 
derness, calling on the sons of men to restore her vanished 
Eden? 

It is the masculine element that is wanting in this 
desert land; only that touch can awaken its solitudes into 
fruitfulness and joy. 

While yet no suspicion of civilized invasion had dis- 
turbed the Prairie into self-consciousness, an instinct of 
coquetry, deep as Nature's heart, kept her in a never- 
resting attitude of self-defense. "Only the brave, only the 
brave deserve the fair!" eternally she seemed to hum, her 
wind-swept lure accompanying. Thus, Summer's drouth 
and Winter's blizzard alternated service, wielding a sword 
that turned every way, to hold her virgin soil against im- 
posters. 

[1] 



2 The Romance of Oklahoma 

Yet all the while, above the striving voices of the sea- 
sons above their minor note of warning, she crooned a 
happy home-song, 

Ah! the Prairie is a Lorelei, luring to a unknown fate! 

Westward, still westward, as flotsam before the tide, the 
helpless Red Man was tossed by the flood of civilized im- 
migration; until at length he arose, a disillusioned, des- 
pairing creature, and turned for a final stand. 

This unwise rebuke, this futile recrimination, com- 
pleted his undoing; and his racial evolutionary period was 
cut peremptorily from an age to a day! 

Meanwhile, the flood, unimpeded, went on. 

And now, behold! upon the western horizon, yet south- 
ward, as rises the sun of Indian Summer, a roseate light 
is breaking! Bright banners gleaming, seeming almost 
to flutter in the breeze! Smoke curling, as from the 
cam.p-fires of a mighty, invisible battlefield! Highways, 
straight and wide, cutting the vast plain, clearing the way 
for conquest! 

These, wonderer! are but church-towers and sky- 
scrapers, homes and schools, and the insignia of a living, 
thriving commerce. 

Scenes of peace, yet symbols of war? Aye, and the 
morning stars are singing- 

While here, in the Redlands of Oklahoma, is staged a 
world-record invasion of things primitive ; an unparalleled 
attack upon ignorance, narrowness and prejudice; against 
poverty, disease, and the exploitation of innocence; upon 
vice and crime and every possible obstacle to the hasten- 
ing of human progress. 

And the Prairie pays the cost, ably and willingly! 

For the masculine, brute-conquering element, so long 
awaited, has at last appeared, and the Desert is bursting 
into bloom. 



WIND SONG. 

Oklahofna Anniversary, April 22. 
ZOE A. TILGHMAN. 

Wind of the Prairie, sweeping adown from the hills 
Bending the upstarting grass of the early spring, 

Tell me what you are singing. 
Summers and winters uncounted, unknown. 
Over the wilderness roaming, 
So you have learned if you will hut tell. 
All that in the long years befell; 

Sing to me, then of the Coming. 

"Tread of the moccasined Indian, trailing the deer in the 

timber, 
Stalking the bison and antelope grazing the open plains; 
Flying with stolen ponies snatched from the Utes of the 

West; 
Plumes of the war-parties riding — past, like the wind in 

the grass. 

"Tramp of the cavalry horses, and gleam of the council 

fires burning; 
Sound of the axe and of hammer where forts arise at 

their bidding; 
Dim trails over the prairie where long-horns journey to 

northward ; 
I lift the mists from the river, and these are gone as the 

vapors. 

"Creaking of laden wagons in lonely and desolate places, 
Ring of the wires drawn taut as the staples are driven 

home; 
Grazing herds in the pastures; long lines winding down 

to the river 
They drink, and I ripple the water, and these are gone 

like the ripples, 

[3] 



4 The Romance of Oklahoma 

"Alone in the smile of the springtide the land lies wait- 
ing before me. 
The jackrabbit leisurely lopes on quest of his own, and 

the coyote 
Howls in the night at the camp fires that gleam in the 

darkness before him ; 
Men and women and children about them gathered and 

waiting, 
Faces and hearts alight with a wonderful hope and 

desiring ; 
Soldiers riding before them, as the sun climbs high in 

the heavens; 
I scatter the smoke of their guns and the throngs are 

melted as quickly. 

"Over the land they are poured, in a flood resistless, un- 
yielding; 
Toiling with stubborn patience, a winter light in their 

faces ; 
Steadfast through days that are dark, till the first great 

struggle is over; 
Winter winds have they borne, but now the joy of the 

springtime 
Wells in their hearts once more, as they who remain are 

foregathered ; 
Past on the breath of the wind, pioneers who blazed the 

way for them, 
But these are they who have conquered and kept — the 

People of Eighty-Nine." 

I 

THE FIRST FOOTSTEPS. 

In those far-off days before the movies were, when the 
opera house was the sole temple of the drama, we watched 
Hamlet's ghost-king glide mysteriously, or held our breath 
as Eliza leaped desperately over the floating ice. And 
while we waited between acts, and read the advertise- 
ments on the curtain — for the hundredth time — sometimes 




Z y.'~ 






^ "" r "^ ^ 2 

i; y- , j s -t 

>^ 5 i^ > ■- "■? 



•/: s a- !H ~ '^ 



^ ^ 5' = =f "^ 



^-^^ i. n i: ^ 3f 










e; ■{. X £ ? 



The First Footsteps 5 

we wondered what was behind the stage. What a thrill 
was that first glimpse of this mysterious world, when 
the scene-shifter let you in as extra help ; or when the 
leading lady chanced to be Mamie Jones' cousin's sister- 
in-law, and Mamie took you back to meet her. 

However fascinating the play, there is yet other ro- 
mance behind the curtain. 

To those who think of Oklahoma today as a land prin- 
cipally of Indians and oil wells; to those outside her 
borders, and for the late-comers among her own people; 
for those, wherever they may be who find romance behind 
the scenes, this little book is offered. 

Three-score years before the English colonists settled at 
Jamestown, Francisco de Coronado, cavalier of Spain, 
made his way across the dry wastes of the Texas Pan- 
handle, and to guide his return, drove stakes along his 
route; thus establishing on the maps for many a day, the 
name of the Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain. So he came 
at length to a more fertile region; a land of wide, rolling 
prairies, of strange sandy rivers seething with floods from 
the mountain snows ; with weird, white, glistening salt 
plains, last remnant of a vanished sea ; a land of countless 
herds and wandering peoples, of marvelous blue skies, and 
sunshine, and of sweeping winds. 

Coronado recognized the richness of the land, but the 
cry of that day was "gold." And this he did not find. Nor 
did those who followed him have better fortune. They 
were conquistadores, not colonizers. Resolute, daring, 
courageous, no toil or hardship was beyond them. With 
the lure of fabled gold ahead, they faced heat and cold, 
quicksands and floods, the parching thirst of the dry 
plains, starvation, and hostile tribes, — ^all the terrors of 
the untamed wilderness. But it was not in their genius 
to subdue that wilderness, and make it yield up its riches. 
They could overrun the established empires, enslave their 
peoples and appropriate their treasures. But they could 
not fight the will-o'-the-wisp tribes that came and went in 
the vast plains; nor bend themselves to the patient labor 



6 The Romance of Oklahoma 

of the pioneer. So they were mere sojourners in the land, 
leaving no trace save their fruitless gold-diggings in the 
Wichita mountains, and a few^ names. 

The most notable of these v^^ords is the name of the 
river, Cimarron. The word has a curious history. It 
seems to have originated along the Isthmus of Panama, 
where, after the Spanish conquest, escaped negro slaves 
were called **simeroons.'' Bands of these were at times 
almost as formidable as the pirates who harried the coasts. 
The word came northward with the conquerors, and some 
circumstance, we know not what, fastened it on the river. 
Possibly its significance of "wanderer" seemed to fit the 
stream; possibly some slave of the expedition escaped and 
became a simeroon among its drifting sandhills. 

The name has survived the tendency of the American 
pioneers to change or translate the Spanish and French 
names. The most striking example is the name of a river 
in New Mexico. When a Spanish expedition disappeared 
utterly, leaving no trace in a mountain valley, that stream 
became El Rio de Las Animas Perditas — The River of Lost 
Souls. The French voyageurs translated the cumbersome 
title into their own language as La Purgatoire; and the 
American frontiersmen anglicized this by sound rather 
than sense, into "Picketwire." Cimarron, however, was 
easy enough to say, and perhaps was a welcome relief from 
the unimaginative North Fork, Dry Fork and various 
other "Forks," by which the Americans were wont to 
divide out one ns,me to serve for several streams. 

Nearly two hundred years after Coronado, the French 
voyageurs began to push westward along the Arkansas 
and the Red rivers, in search of skins. They depended on 
boats for travel and transportation, hence their . activities 
were confined chiefly to the wooded and hilly eastern part 
of the state, and scarcely touched the prairies. They 
traded with the Indians, and their canoes, laden with traps 
and trade goods, pushed up nearly all the passable tribu- 
taries of the two rivers. Auguste Choteau, of the great 



The First Footsteps 7 

fur company, personally kept a trading post on the Grand 
river for many years before his death. 

Yet, two hundred years after the coming of the Span- 
iards, and after three-score years of French dominion, 
Oklahoma was still an untouched wilderness. No white 
man's dwelling was within her borders; no fields were 
cultivated save those of the Wichitas, the one tribe of the 
Plains who planted and garnered. One change only the 
white man had brought; the horses escaped from the 
Spaniards had multiplied into myriad herds, and the In- 
dians had learned to tame and ride them. This one thing, 
however, was a vital change in the life of the vdld tribes, 
rendering their hunting range greater, their subsistence 
more secure, and their war-like activities measurably 
enhanced. 

The French had been friendly, and had brought them 
coveted trade goods. The Spaniards further away, had 
troubled them little. But a new flag waved over Louisi- 
ana, and a new people came to see the land and possess it. 
They drove their long white wagons over the Santa Fe 
trail, and they met war with war. Now and again some 
hapless party would fall victims to the Indians. The gold 
rush of '49 brought some travelers across Oklahoma, prob- 
ably starting from Fort Smith, instead of the more usual 
route beginning at the Missouri river. At a ford of Coim- 
cil creek east of Stillwater, the spring floods, within re- 
cent years, washed out two old flint lock muskets, long 
buried there; memento of some far-off tragedy, a dream 
of California fortune ended at this pleasant camp. 

In the bitter struggle of the Last Frontier, the story 
of Oklahoma is inextracably bound up with that of Kan- 
sas. The settlement and the railroads, following the San- 
ta Fe Trail, gradually pushed the Indians southward. It 
was from Oklahoma that they made their last terrible 
raids on the frontier settlements. It was from the forts 
and military post in Kansas that the punitive expeditions 
were sent out which finally quelled the tribes. 



8 The Romance of Oklahoma 

The plainsmen succeeded the trappers, with their canoes 
and trade goods. These men rode horses, and no journey 
was beyond them ; no storm or thirst or hunger daunted 
them. Many fell, indeed, but where one failed another 
came boldly forward to succeed. No rigors of the wilder- 
ness or terror of savage men could stay the pioneer. They 
killed the buffalo which for the Plains Indian were food 
and raimant and shelter; and aside from his ponies, his 
only real wealth. When the Indians stole their horses, 
they made reprisals on the Indian herds. These amenities 
belong especially to Oklahoma, for it was not until Kansas 
was settled, and the Indians held south of the line that 
the practice was most flourishing. 

Cattle ranches were establislied in southern Kansas, and 
as there were no fences, of course the cattle strayed south. 
Often they would drift before a storm for twenty miles or 
more. In the recognized domain of the Indian, only the 
hardiest white men would venture. The cattle men paid 
extra wages to those who would go to gather the strays. 
With guns and saddle, and a meager outfit on a pack- 
horse, these men ranged the enemy's country. Now their 
horses would be stolen from the picket ropes at night, and 
the white men would be set afoot. Almost as good a 
trailer as the Indian, he frequently recovered the stolen 
horse — or another. Sometimes the Indian was "pun- 
ished." Again, the white man suffered. Thus, Pat Hen- 
nessey, freighter, was found amid the charred remains of 
his wagon. Amos Chapman, with five companions, bear- 
ing dispatches from General Miles to Ft. Supply, was 
attacked by a war party. Their horses shot or gone, one 
of their number killed and Chapman himself wounded 
severely in the leg, so that it was afterward amputated, 
they took refuge in the shallow depression of a buffalo 
wallow. The hot sun blazed upon them ; the flies gathered. 
Then it rained — ^blessed relief from the torture of thirst— 
and the buffalo wallow became a pool, foul with the blood 
from their wounds. Without food, and with only the filthy 
water to moisten their aching throats, by night and day 



The First Footsteps 9 

they kept watch, to hold the besiegers at bay. Brave 
though the Indian is, he never liked to face open fire. It 
is not his way of fighting. And he stood in wholesome 
awe of the plainsmen's splendid rifles and matchless 
marksmanship. The waiting game was safer, and seemed 
just as sure. In the night, Billy Dixon skipped through 
the cordon to seek help. He met a detachment of troops, 
who could not move them, but left food, and carried word 
of their plight to the General. With a new suspense, they 
took up the watch for two more days and nights of agony. 
Then to their strained ears came the bugle call, and they 
fired their guns in reply. If the darkness hid tears upon 
their faces who shall wonder? Chapman finished his trip 
in an ambulance and delivered the dispatches. 

Near the place where Pat Hennessey met his tragic 
fate, a band of Indians, supposed to be the same that 
killed him, fell in with two plainsmen who had been gath- 
ering strayed stock. They had thirteen head of ponies, 
and these they drove with them as they fled. From time 
to time, as their mounts flagged, they would rope a loose 
pony, change the saddle and ride on, tightening the girths 
as they went. They dared not stop at night lest they be 
surrounded. The state line was still far away. Late in 
the afternoon of the second day they came to the Salt 
Fork. It was up, but flood and quicksand were less dan- 
gerous than the foe behind. Four horses had dropped 
out in the flight, but the remaining nine were urged into 
the water and swam across. The Indians quit. They 
never cared for an excess of water — a trait that may be 
observed in some of their descendants today. 

With the early grass each spring, the great herds of 
cattle came northward along the trails. The earlier route 
went through the eastern part of the state, passing near 
Muskogee, and heading toward Coffeyville, Kansas. But 
about 1866 the Chisholm Trail was opened, a direct and 
easy route across the Territory. With from three hun- 
dred to three thousand head of cattle, a chuck-wagon 
remuda — Spanish for remount — extra horses, and men 



10 The Romance of Oklahoma 

enough to handle the herd, the cattle man made the drive 
to Wichita, AJbilene, or Dodge City, as each in turn be- 
came the principal shipping point. From the Red River 
to the Kansas line there was no house nor well, or even a 
barbed wire fence ; only the big rivers to be crossed, often 
swimming the cattle, sometimes pulling or digging out the 
animals caught in the quicksand. By night the men 
would roll in their blankets about the camp fire, while the 
night herd rode slowly around the bed-ground of the cat- 
tle, singing strange cowboy melodies. This custom orig- 
inated doubtless in the desire of some lonesome rider to 
relieve his burdened spirit; but all the cattlemen consid- 
ered that the singing had a soothing effect on the cattle, 
and was to be commended as a salutary precaution against 
that most dreaded catastrophe, a stampede. The cattle- 
men had little trouble with the Indians. Usually a chief 
would appear asking for beeves, and these were given 
him; often cows, or young stock or strays which were 
mere extras in the herd. 

No chapter in frontier story is more thrilling than that 
of the Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry and its gallant cam- 
paign under General Custer, in '68 and '69, which quelled 
the savage tribes. The awful trail of blood and flame, 
rapine and desolation which marked the Indian war-path 
of '68 was scarcely cold when the call went forth for a 
regiment of volunteers to avenge the slaughter. Thus 
was the Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry enrolled, from the 
boldest of the pioneer youth and the hardiest frontiersmen. 
The governor of Kansas, aforetime Indian fighter, re- 
signed his office to become their leader; and on the roster 
of officers was the name of David Payne, later the Boomer, 
father of the state which he now helped to make safe for 
civilization. Marching from Wichita, the regiment, 
through incompetent guides, became lost in the Cimarron 
sand hills. They ran out of food and suffered terrible 
hardships in a blizzard which overtook them there. Cour- 
iers got through to Fort Supply, however, and relief came. 
At the Fort they joined General Custer with the Seventh 



The First Footsteps 11 

Cavalry and thenceforth were under his command. After 
a brief and successful campaign on the Washita, and a 
rest at Fort Sill, Custer, with his available men, set out 
on what was perhaps his hardest, and certainly his most 
decisive, campaign. Most of the Cheyennes had fled west- 
ward across the Staked Plains; and all the Indians be- 
lieved that this region was impassable in the winter. 
Without camp equipment, with only a few wagons of food 
which soon was eaten, the men ate the flesh of the wagon 
mules as these gave out from toil and starvation, on the 
way. Cavalry no longer, footsore and hungry, they 
pushed on; and at length they found a village of the 
Cheyennes. Custer seized three chiefs and demanded the 
release of two captive white women whom the Indians 
v/ere known to have; also that the Indians return to their 
reservation. Never, even in his heroic death, did General 
Custer appear greater than when, with his few needy and 
desperate men, he coolly met the raging of the furious 
warriors; and sat silent before the passionate protesta- 
tions of the wily chiefs. Following the great tradition 
of American diplomacy, he confounded their crafty lying 
by ignoring it utterly, as if he had not heard. And when 
he spoke, it was an ultimatum as bold as Roosevelt's 
famous demand for Pordicaris. The two white women 
must be delivered up unharmed, or the chiefs would be 
hanged at sunset the next day. To' cold and hunger was 
now added the agony of suspense. Every free Indian dis- 
appeared. Had they made good their escape, leaving the 
chiefs to their fate? What an inglorious ending to the 
terrible expedition — to hang three Indians, while the 
rest laughed at their demands. Anxiously every soldier 
watched the descending sun. At length, when it was a 
red ball, a mere hand's breadth above the horizon, a sol- 
itary figure appeared on the hilltop, beckoned, and an- 
other and another came; at length, one pony with two 
riders, which came on before. It was the two white 
v/omen for whose sake the troops had struggled on so 
desperately; released at last from their awful slavery. 



12 The Romance of Oklahoma 

With the return of the Cheyennes to their reservation, 
the savage menace was almost ended, and no serious 
trouble occurred for several years. Henceforth the ad- 
vance of the pioneer v^^as to be peaceful possession. The 
blood which was yet to be spilled for the establishment 
of the state was not in the struggle of White and Red, 
but of Lawlessness and Law. 



CHAPTER 11. 

CHEYENNE WAR SONG. 

By Zoe a. Tilghman. 

Now the time of the snow is over, 
The white frost comes not in the night, 
The soft winds blow from the southland 
And the green grass springs on the hills. 
Bring your arrows, your sharp war arrows. 
That hang in the teepee. 

Let the young men go forth to hunt 

That there may be meat in the wig-wams. 

The grass is green and the ponies eat and grow strong; 

They grow strong and swift for the warriors. 

Bring your bows and your sharp war arrows. 
Paint your faces with war paint. 
The medicine men are singing. 
They are making a mighty medicine; 
They will make strong the warriors. 

i 

The grass grows tall; it covers the hoofs of the ponies; 

It is the sign for the war path. 

The warriors ride far away to the place of the white man ; 

They will burn his wig^wams, 

They will bring scalps and ponies and captives. 

Leave in the village the old men, the women and children. 

Mount on your swift war ponies. 

Bring many sharp war arrows. 

The medicine men are singing; 

The sign of the tall grass tells them 

It is the time of the war path. 

[13] 



14 The Romance of Oklahoma 

ABORIGINES. 
By Mary Nagle. 

"As unto the bow, the cord is," so, unto Oklahoma, 
is the Indian, and this "Romance of Oklahoma" will not 
go far on its road to fame and fortune, without a chapter 
given over to the Story of the Indian. 

It has been declared, by "wise men of the East," that 
no perfect history of our great state, is yet possible; that 
we are too young; that our citizens have no perspective, 
and no background. 

But we assert that our state furnishes a sufficiently an- 
cient background in the American Indian, who roamed 
the prairies of Oklahoma long before Columbus discovered 
America. 

This writer has neither knowledge nor space, to dwell 
on the prehistoric Indian, nor to tell much of the pioneer 
life of the early Indian, but, rather, to relate some facts 
and stories (perhaps, before untold), of our red brother 
as he came to Oklahoma, and show the influences and 
environments, which have made him and his descendants, 
important citizens of our state. 

When, through a long series of treaties with the 
Great Father at Washington, the five civilized tribes were 
transplanted frota their old homes in the South lands, 
to the Indian Territory, they settled in the eastern por- 
tion, as follows: 

To the extreme northeast lives the Cherokee Nation with 
Tahlequah as its capital. The Choctaws occupy the south- 
east corner of the state, with the Chickasaws, a closely re- 
related tribe, immediately west of them. Just north are the 
Creeks, and the little country of the Seminoles. Tisho- 
mingo is the capital of the Chickasaws, Okmulgee of the 
Creeks, and Wewoka of the Seminoles. Unfortunately, 
the big tribal toM^n of the Choctaws, Tuskahoma, was 
never made a county seat. 

These locations are given for the benefit of our read- 
ers, who are like the woman from the East, who said, "I 




' -^'"^ ^=t'- j^fe ^ 









Aborigines 15 

know Oklahoma is full of Indians, but I have not the 
slightest idea of their names or where they live." 

To the Indian, Oklahoma owes, first of all, her name, 
and altho many disputes have arisen as to the origin and 
meaning of the name, it is generally conceded to be a 
Choctaw^ word meaning "Red People." 

Oklahoma also owes to the five civilized tribes, who 
came to her between the years 1832 and 1835, her first 
civilization, for they brought with them their own tribal 
governments, patterned after the lands of the South. 
Each tribal town was the seat of Council, where they 
elected Chief, Second Chief, Council of Five and War 
Chief. They also appointed police and marshal, which 
were called lighthorsemen, and these were given power 
to inflict punishments. 

The sentences for crime were usually fines; for grave 
offenses so many blows from the lash; and, for extreme 
offenses, death which was inflicted by standing the pris- 
oner against a wall, and after baring his breast, shooting 
him with fire arms. 

To the high minded Indian of those days, the crime of 
cowardice was worse than death, and prisons were not 
needed, for no full-blood was ever known to evade his 
punishment for crime, or to run away, when sentenced to 
die. 

The early Chickasaws and Choctaws were a pure 
blooded race of Indians, and had a horror of any ming- 
ling of their blood with the negro, which race had been 
brought to this country by them, as slaves. 

Henry Benson, one of the early Choctaw Missionaries, 
gives this incident to illustrate this marked trait of these 
tribes. 

To his "Academy for Boys" there came one day, a 
handsome lad of fourteen years, whose hair was so black 
and curly, that his playmates taunted him about it, call- 
ing him "Nigger." The boy, who knew nothing of his 
parents, for hehad been an orphan from infancy, rushed 
in to Mr. Benson and demanded to know the truth. "My 



16 The Romance of Oklahoma 

boy," said the teacher, "I know of both your parents, 
your father was a noble Choctaw Chief, and your mother, 
a beautiful mulatto slave of his household." The boy fled 
from the room, ^\dthout a word, and when, later, on hear- 
ing a shot, Mr. Benson went outside, he found the little 
half-breed dying from a self-inflicted wound, murmuring, 
"Me no good Choctaw, me die." 

Among the great Chiefs of the Choctaws, the name ot 
Pushmataha, stands alone. He was not only a great war- 
rior, but was a statesman as well, and was the only full- 
blood Indian to bear the rank of Brigadier General, in the 
Federal Army. When he was dying he was asked if he 
had any request to make as to his burial. He said: 
"Shoot heap big guns over my body," accordingly, he was 
buried with military honors. 

History tells us that four of the five civilized tribes, 
who were moved from the South, came reluctantly, yet 
peaceably, but that the Seminoles back in Florida, fought 
desperately for seven years against removal. Under their 
powerful Chief, Osceola, they defied the Government, and 
it was not until Osceola was captured, that they could be 
m'oved. At first they settled on the lands of their kins- 
men, the Creeks, but fearing that they would lose their 
identity, they complained to the Great Father, who finally 
set aside a part of the Creek's country for them, as their 
own. 

Of all the eastern Indians it may be said that the 
Creeks and Seminoles clung longest to the old customs 
and habits of early days and the manner of preparing 
their food is most primitive. A dish of corn, called 
"Sofky," is made by the Creeks in this manner, and is 
much the same as hominy. On a log of hard wood, oak, 
or hickory, two feet through and about a foot high, is 
dug a deep round hole, into which is put corn, which the 
squaws pound to a coarse grit with a long round stick, 
for a pestle. The ground corn is soaked in lye, made 
from wood ashes, until tender, then boiled until the water 



Aborigines 17 

turns a dark yellow, when it is soft and ready to eat. 
The Indians never use seasoning of any kind. 

The old superstitious regard these Indians have for 
their priests or "medicine men," was brought out in a 
Court trial of a Seminole, just recently. 

The Seminole was being tried for murder, and the 
prosecuting attorney had discovered that he had gone to 
a "medicine man" for so-called murder medicine with 
which to heal himself from crime. The Court refused to 
allow the medicine man's testimony to be entered in the 
case, setting it aside as sacred, as that of a Priest or 
Doctor. 

Of the Cherokees, it has been said, that they have 
more institutions of learning in their nation, per capita, 
than has any other nation in the world. They gave to our 
state, its first Colleges, introduced the first printing 
press, and published the first newspaper, the Cherokee 
Messenger, in 1844. Whole volutaes might be written on 
the advancement of these Indians along lines of educa- 
tion and culture, and many prominent men, notably. Sen- 
ator Robert L. Owen, of presidential timber, have had 
their origin in this race. 

The story of that early genius, Sequoyah, has gone out 
to all lands. How that an uneducated, ignorant Indian, 
v/ho had lived to middle age, without being able to sign 
his own name, was confined to his lodge one whole winter 
long with rheumatism, and amused himself by cutting out 
figures on pieces of bark. 

He soon discovered that he could make these bark 
chips talk, and tnom this small beginning, the eighty- 
five letters of the Cherokee alphabet, were formed and 
named, before the winter's end. 

This invention of Sequoyah, in 1820, spread like wild- 
fire through the tribe, and all studied hard to learn to 
read and write as it is said that any Cherokee, old or 
young, could master the alphabet in three weeks' time. 
Sequoyah's death occurred in 1844, while on a hunting 
expedition in Mexico. Not long ago, a skeleton was 



18 The Romance of Oklahoma 

found in a cave in Mexico, which on account of a ring on 
the finger and other characteristic marks, was thought by 
some to be that of Sequoyah, whoise body was never 
found. 

But while we are studying the Cherokee from this 
highly civilized point of view, let us not forget that there 
is a vast difference between the rich and the poor of this 
tribe. 

The poor Cherokee live very much as the poor whites 
of our own race, with a small patch of ground, on which 
he raises just enough corn for his family, and a little 
feed for his few bony horses, and his hogs, of the typical 
"razor back" variety. 

This poorer class of Indian is found in all the tribes, 
and it is this class, as is the truth of any people, who 
cling longest to old superstitions and customs of early, 
primitive days. 

There is a belief among the Indians, that if, when 
starting out on a hunt, they fail to kill the first animal, 
they must go back and start all over again, thereby chas- 
ing away the bad luck spirits. 

Their horses or ponies are always mounted from the 
right side, and when driving a team, an Indian will in- 
variably turn to the left — using a "Cherokee turn out" 
as it is commonly called by the whites. 

Lying directly west of the Cherokee Nation is the coun- 
try of the Osages, with Pawhuska, its county seat town. 
This country of the Osage Nation, made so rich in re- 
cent years by the bringing in of the Mid-Continent Oil 
Fields, is said to be the richest nation per capita in the 
world. All oil royalties in the Nation are held in the 
tribal fund, so there are no rich and poor Osages, as all 
share alike. 

This tribe, and the Quapaws, a related tribe, are com- 
monly known as the indigenous Indians of Oklahoma, but 
it is now believed that they came originally from the 
Sioux stock, and migrated to this country six hundred 
years ago. There is an old legend that the Kaw Indians 



Aborigines 19 

were once a branch of the Osages, and became separated 
from them in this manner. Many years ago, when the 
Osages were making their laborious way across the coun- 
try, they came to a very large stream which only a few 
of the tribe dared to cross. Those who stayed behind were 
called "Kaws" or cowards. But we are inclined to sympa- 
thize with the Kaws in this story, when we know that the 
stream they were afraid to cross was the Mississippi River. 

When Washington Irving toured Oklahoma in 1832, he 
must have had some days of real sport and genuine thrills, 
for he is said to have hunted buffalo a few miles south 
of the present site of Oklahoma City, and chased wild 
horses near where Guthrie now stands. 

In his book "Tour of the Prairies," he describes a 
chance encounter with seven Osage Chiefs and war- 
riors. "They were dressed," says Irving, "in scarlet 
frocks, with fringed leggins of deer skin, and I could not 
help but admire the fine heads and busts of these savages, 
and their graceful attitudes and expressive gestures." 

The interpreter with Irving stopped the Indians and 
asked where they were going. They told him they were 
on the War Path to the Pawnees. The interpreter tried 
to persuade them to go home quietly, and not attack the 
Pawnees. The Indians bowed ceremoniously and rode 
away, but as they went the big Chief was heard to say, 
that if it was true that the Great Father would soon put 
an end to all warfare among his red children, he must 
make the most of the time left, so off they went, to 
plunder, scalp and kill. 

The Osages, always a friendly race to the white man, 
were, nevertheless, a fierce and warlike tribe in early 
days. 

Many bitter fights occurred between them and the Cher- 
okees, and the historic battle of Claremore Mound did 
more to settle the trouble between them than all the peace 
treaties the Government tried to arrange. 



20 The Romance of Oklahoma 

On the northwest part of the Osage Country is a region 
of hills, the highest two of which, are of dumb-bell shape, 
and connected by a narrow ridge. 

These hills are about a mile across the top, and com- 
prise several acres. Great round holes in the top of the 
hills, nov/ filled with rubbish, look as if they might have 
been wells, and the Osages have a legend that this old 
Fort, as it is called, was the scene of a long siege between 
themselves and Wichitas, who cam.e on tlie War Path to 
the Osages. 

After a fierce fight, which lasted a long time, the 
Wichitas were so badly beaten and their tribe so broken 
that they never came again to the country of the Osages. 

The Osage Indian of today, though very rich and pros- 
perous, is still very much "Indian." The old full-bloods, 
especially, like to meet in villages, wearing their blankets 
and Indian togs, and tell the stories and legends of former 
days. With their children, they are over-indulgent, and 
spend much money on foolish and extravagant presents. 

That most of the tribe still hold to the old belief in 
evil spirits is shown by the superstitious fear they have 
of one of their tribe, who failed to stay dead after he was 
buried. This was poor John Stink, who years ago, fell 
sick, and according to the customs of the Osages, was 
carried out of his house to die. He did not die, however, 
and is now an outcast in his tribe, dead to his own people, 
and, according to his own belief, an "evil spirit." 

He has taken up with dogs, many of them, for com- 
panions, and is a common sight in Pawhuska, the Osage 
capital, lounging about in public places and doorways of 
business houses. 

Not long ago, the town marshal ordered John to keep 
his dogs off the streets, but John did not understand, nor 
did he pay any attention, for the next day, he, with the 
dogs, made his appearance, as usual. The marshal shot 
into the pack of dogs, killing a little white one. John 
says he is now "through with white man, too." 

Among the tribes who were moved from Nebraska and 



Aborigines 21 

Kansas, to reservations in the Cherokee strip, west of 
the Cherokees, are the Shawnees, Pottawatomies, Sac 
and Fox, Otoes and Pawnees'. 

Among these names, none is more familiar than the 
Pawnees, yet of no tribe is less known. George Bird 
Crinnel, in his "Pawnee Folk Tales" gives this interesting 
sketch of this tribe. 

"Once the Pawnees were a great people. They were 
very numerous. They were undisputed masters of a 
great territory, and had everything that heart could 
wish — ^their corn and their buffalo gave them food, cloth- 
ing and shelter; they had weapons for war and for the 
chase. In peace, they were light hearted and contented; 
in war, they were fierce and successful. This was in the 
past; now they are few in number, poor, and truly a 
vanishing race." When Mr. Crinnel first knew the tribe 
in Nebraska in 1870, they numbered three thousand, as 
he last saw them in the first days of their coming to Okla- 
homa, there were but eight hundred. To earn their liv- 
ing by toil, to plow, to dig, to sow and to reap their grain 
for subsistence, is the main problem of the Pawnee today. 
Yet the tribe is rich in old legends and hero stories, and 
all who are familiar with these beautiful, fantastic tales, 
are convinced of the high qualities of the Pawnee char- 
acter. 

Like many tribes of the Plains Indians, the Pawnee had 
a custom of worshipping at the time of the first thunder 
in the Spring. This thunder told them that Winter was 
over and the time was coming to plant their grain. 

"Old Curly Chief" describes the "Corn Dance" as fol- 
lows: 

The windy month, March, was the one in which the 
gods gave us the seed to plant. The first moon of April 
is when we had a worship about the corn. Until this was 
over, no one would clear out the patch where he intended 
to plant the crop. 



22 The Romance of Oklahoma 

The preparations for the Corn dance are always made 
by a woman. She must furnish the dried meat made 
from the buffalo. 

The sack which holds the heart of the buffalo, she dries, 
and fills it with all various kinds of colored corn; the blue 
corn, which is for the blue sky; the red corn, for the 
evening sunset; the yellow corn, for the morning sun- 
rise; the white corn, typifying white cloud; the spotted 
corn, which represents the sky dotted with clouds. All 
these she puts into a bag, placing in the sack, three 
grains at a time. After much ceremony and dancing, the 
woman, goes to the high priest and hands him the dried 
meat and sacks of corn and two ancient, sacred hoes, 
made from the shoulder blade of the buffalo. After the 
corn has been duly blessed by the priest, the woman 
holds it up to the sky in both hands, and the priest sings 
over it. After this ceremony, the women clear up the 
patches and get ready to plant the com. 

One more interesting note on the medicine men, or doc- 
tors of the Pawnees. These medicine men are said to 
have had wonderful powers, often curing ailments which 
white doctors could not heal. 

Fevers v/ere often treated by the sweat house; this was 
a sort of "Turkish bath," made by throwing blankets over 
a low frame of light poles, then placing in this enclosure 
several rocks, heated very hot in the fire. Water was 
poured over these stones from which a heavy steam arose, 
causing the patient to sweat profusely. 

The Pawnees have always been called "Wolves" by 
other tribes, because they are said to have the endurance 
of wolves, to prowl like wolves, and to be able to run all 
day, dance all night, and live on little or no food for days. 

Mr. Gordon W. Lillie, a one-time Indian trader and in- 
terpreter, and now white chief of the Pawnees, has done 
much for this tribe, for he says, to the Pawnee Indian, 
he owes much. At his .magnificent ranch home near 
Pawnee, Oklahoma, he is conducting an experiment, which 



Aborigines 23 

he hopes, will be the means of preserving to the future 
generations, the American buffalo. 

Also, at Pawnee, he built the typical Indian Council 
House, which will stand as a monument to the Pa\vnee 
Indians, showing their great ingenuity and skill in build- 
ing. It is built of bark, mud, sticks, stones and heavy 
timbers, bound together with willow twigs and raw-hide 
thongs. Here the Indians hold their religious ceremonies, 
give their feasts, and meet in council away from the 
curious eye of the whites, and here the old men relate 
the oft-told hero stories and legends of the once powerful, 
but now, rapidlj'' diminishing race of Pawnees. 

South and west of the Pawnee country, live the once 
wild Indians of the plains, the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, 
Comanches, Apaches, and Kiowas. 

They now hold lands which had been ceded to the U. S. 
by the five civilized tribes in 1866. 

These tribes were of a roving nomadic nature, not con- 
tent to live quietly on their lands, but restlessly seeking 
other country over which to roam and explore. 

During the Civil War, when the government had few 
soldiers to spare to guard the frontier, these Indians kept 
the whole country in terror, raiding settlements, killing 
settlers, and taking the white women and children as 
captives. 

After the war, the Federal Government made peace 
treaty after peace treaty with these lawless tribes, who 
seemed to regard them as mere scraps of paper. At the 
beginning of the winter months, the Indian would make 
a treaty, come very peaceably to the Agencies for rations 
for his hungry family, and then, in the Spring, when the 
grass was long enough to make pasture for his ponies, he 
would start out on the War Path again. 

Finally in 1868, a regiment, under the command of 
Gen. Geo. A. Custer, and the famous Nineteenth Kansas 
Cavalry, under Gen. Crawford, opened up a Winter Cam- 
paign against these Indians, who had fled to the Washita 
Valley for safety. 



24 The Romance of Oklahoma 

In this attack, which was a complete surprise to the 
Indians, they were so severely punished and defeated, 
that they completely surrendered, and came to the con- 
clusion that a Peace Treaty meant something after all. 
This great Winter Battle in the valley of the Washita 
was the last fight with the Indians for several years, and 
Fort Sill was established in 1869, to guard against further 
outbreaks. 

There were some uprisings after this, as more recent 
happenings and events will disclose. Geronimo, a noted 
Apache Chief and Warrior, after slaying, stealing and 
plundering on every hand, was run down and captured, 
with his band, about 1886, iby Gen. Nelson Miles, after a 
perilous chase through the deserts and mountains of 
New Mexico. At first they were sent to Florida, but were 
afterwards brought back and held on the Reservation 
at Fort Sill as prisoners of war. 

The Government tried to force Geronimo and his band 
to take allotments, and live as the other Indians, but the 
old Chief would never surrender, and remained a regular 
"Bolshevik" Indian, to the day of his death, which oc- 
curred several years ago at Fort Sill. 

In sharp contrast to the career of Geronimo, is the 
story of Quanah Parker, which reads like a wonderful 
Cooper Romance. His mother, when a child, was cap- 
tured by the Kiowa and Comanche Indians, when they 
destroyed Fort Parker. Most of the garrison at the Fort 
were scalped and murdered, and little Cynthia Anne 
Parker was snatched from her murdered mother's arms. 
She was carried away, and lived with the Comanches un- 
til she grew up. Then she was wooed and won by Peta 
Nacona, a famous War Chief, noted among the Comanches 
for his great bravery and daring. 

To them were born two sons and a daughter. In 1860, 
Nacona's band was attacked by Governor Ross' troops. 
Nacona was killed, and Cynthia Anne and her children 
were taken captives and delivered to Isaac Parker, an 
uncle. 



Aborigines 25 

But as Quanah grew older, he would not live with the 
white man, and was restless until he rejoined his tribe, 
of which he afterward became a great and wise Chief. 
He became very rich and prosperous, and lived in a beau- 
tiful canon south of the Wichita Mountains. 

In an article on "Quanah Parker," by 0. W. Bronson, 
he tells us that Quanah owned great herds of horses and 
cattle, and several sections of land. In appearance, he 
was as tall and as straight as an arrow, with a very 
dark, clear skin. He is said to have been the best example 
of the "survival of the fittest" of the Red Man of the 
border. 

President Roosevelt honored him with his friendship, 
and Quanah acted as his guide when he came to hunt in 
the Territory. He was friendly to all the white man's 
enterprises, and kept those of his tribe who were not, in 
subjection. Quanah's home is the finest one in the Reser- 
vation and was the first one built. 

He adorned the roofs of his house, sheds and barns with 
great white stars, which can be seen for a long distance 
across the country. His death occurred just a few years 
ago, and he is still loved and mourned by his family and 
loyal people. 

In the early days, the Plains Indians lived almost en- 
tirely on the meat of the buffalo, but as a change, or sottne- 
times when meat was scarce, they would gather the roots 
of a wild plant which they called kokinah. This trailing 
plant, with handsome dark red flowers, grew abundantly 
on the prairie. When the Indian met the white man who 
gave him bread, he called it ko-kinah, as it tasted some- 
thing like their root. 

These Indians of today are still great meat eaters, and 
it is generally known that they eat dog meat, with great 
relish. 

In Robert M. Wright's book on the Indian, he tells this 
amusing anecdote. One day when Bob was riding across 
the prairie, he met an old Indian who stopped him and 
tried to sell him the hindquarters of a dog, telling him 



26 The Romance of Oklahoma 

that he didn't know good meat when he saw it, if he 
didn't buy. Bob refused it, and went on to the camp, 
where he found the boys at supper, eating with great 
relish, the meat of an antelope as they thought. "Come 
on," said they to Bob, "and eat some of this delicious ante- 
lope which an old Indian sold us." Bob shook his head, 
but forebore telling them that they were eating just 
plain dog. 

Not many Indians like to live in the houses, into which 
civilization has forced them, and much prefer to stay in 
the brush shades or arbors, which they make by throwing 
branches of trees over a frame of poles. 

One reason for this preference is that the houses be- 
come so infested with fleas as to be unbearable. The In- 
dian and his dogs are inseparable, and the dogs and fleas 
are inseparable, so, naturally, where the Indian is, there 
will the fleas be also. Do not these primitive character- 
istic traits of the Indian, arouse in us a feeling of sym- 
pathy for these once roving tribes, who are now forced 
to settle down quietly, to lead the life of an ordinary citi- 
zen of a widely different race? 

What shall their future be? What is written of the In- 
dian of yesterday, is not true of him today, and what is 
told of him today, will not be true of his tomorrow, for 
the race is passing through a period of swift transition; 
every generation is changing. 

But to those who believe the race will become extinct, 
we quote the following from a recent issue of the Omaha 
World-Herald : "The Indian, apparently, is always going 
to remain with us, for the Indian is not dying. He has 
been multiplying since 1870, and there are now 333,702 
Indians in the United States." 

The article goes on to suggest that the young male In- 
dians begin military training in distinct units as Indian 
troops. 

There were over 10,000 Indian troops raised in the 
United States for the World War. and Oklahoma wull 



Aborigines 27 

never forget the 'brave part played by her Indian troops 
in that great conflict. Many saw service in France, and 
were decorated for deeds of bravery and daring. 

A distinguished French sculpter chose an Indian soldier 
as his model for the typical American soldier, and surely 
he has the first claim to this title, for he was the first 
American, of a strong and virile race, and always, a great 
fighter. 



CHAPTER III. 
A RANCHMAN OF OKLAHOMA. 

By 0. D. Halsell. 

I was bom in Red River County, Texas, February 14, 
1859. My parents then lived at Decatur, northwest Texas. 
In November, 1876, I went to work for my two uncles on 
a ranch near Wichita Falls. The same ranch was located 
in 1868 or 1869 by Dan Waggoner and my two uncles. 
They were, however, forced to move back to Jack and 
Wise County on account of desperate raids made by Co- 
manche Indians. During one of these fights one of my 
uncles, George Halsell, was killed. They, however, opened 
up the ranch again in 1874 or 1875. 

During the year of 1877 my uncle came to me and 
stated that he had sold his fat cattle to certain parties, to 
be shipped to Chicago or Kansas City markets, but on ac- 
count of these markets going down the parties to whom 
he sold had disposed of the cattle to someone v/ho had a 
contract with the Government to furnish beef to Indians 
at Anadarko. What he wanted was for me to follow these 
cattle to Anadarko and pay the buyers $2.00 per head to 
, kill them all within my presence as he did not want them 
turned loose on the ranch up there for fear they would 
drift back into Texas and have their brand on them, and 
the chances were that they might get hold of more of his 
cattle and put their brands on them, and it would be hard 
for him to tell whether these were the original cattle sold 
or not. 

While in Anadarko I for the first time remember of 
having ever heard of the name of Oklahoma. A bunch of 
cowboys in talking made the remark that there was a crazy 
fool by the name of David L. Payne who was trying to 
claim Oklahoma v/as government land and subject to settle- 
ment. I made inquiry as to what Oklahoma was, where it 

[28] 



A Ranchman of Oklahoma. 29 

was located and I was informed that it was a block of land 
lying in the center of the Indian Territory on which no 
one was allowed to live, but was claimed by the Creek and 
Seminole Indians for hunting purposes only. 

In 1880 my uncles on account of drought in Western 
Texas decided to move to the Cherokee Nation. On 
August 25th that year I arrived at the Cimarron River 
just north of Guthrie, meeting one of my uncles who had 
gone on ahead to locate the ranch. We bought out a small 
rancher at the head of Cedar Creek, just north of Mulhall, 
believing that we were locating on the south edge of the 
Cherokee Strip. It afterwards proved that it was really 
in Oklahoma. This was the first ranch that was ever 
located on this block of land, Oklahoma. 

Afterwards different cattlemen began to come in and 
locate ranches on the edges of Oklahoma, allowing their 
cattle to drift over on to these lands, it being the only free 
grass in the country. All cattle rr^en were forced to pay 
the Indians lease money when grazing on their lands. On 
account of the agitation of David L. Payne and his colon- 
ists, claiming the' government was allowing cattle men to 
use these lands and was not willing to allow actual settlers 
to locate on them, the government decided to clear Okla- 
homa of all ranch men and sent Phil Sheridan to Fort Reno 
to take charge of same. Sheridan took several thousand 
soldiers, got after the ranch men on the west side of Okla- 
homa, drove them and their cattle out of Oklahoma in the 
middle of the winter. He got as far as the Cimarron 
River with these herds. The cattle were poor and began 
to die in large numbers and Sheridan gave up trying to 
do anything until spring opened up. By the time he got 
back to his work in the spring all the ranch men had 
gotten out to the Cherokee Strip, Iowa Reservation, 
Chickasaw Nation or Oheyenn^ and Arapaho Reservations 
on the west. 

About this time David L. Payne, old man Couch, and 
Captain Couch, his son, (who was afterwards killed on a 
claim adjoining Oklahoma City on the west) gathered to- 



30 The Romance of Oklahoma 

get'her about three thousand people, coming from the 
states of Missouri, loiwa, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas. 
They located on the Chickaskia River just south of Hunne- 
well, Kansas, Late in the fall they completed their prep- 
arations for going to Oklahoma and making settlement. 
They started south in a body to the banks of the Cimar- 
ron River, seven miles north of Guthrie, camped there for 
several days until all of their different bodies of men could 
come together at that one point, and be ready to march 
in a body across the Cimarron River into Oklahoma. I had 
a ranch eleven miles below, on the northwest corner of the 
Iowa Reservation. The government heard of this raid, sent 
about a hundred soldiers to this crossing, lined them up 
on the south banks guarding the crossing. Payne got 
ready to move south at sunrise. His party crossed the 
river in a body, marched right into the soldiers who had 
their bayonets drawn, drove right through them, came on 
south to the North Canadian and scattered from Council 
Grove, seven miles west of Oklahoma City, down the river 
ten or tv/elve miles, with the idea of making settlement. 
I had word that he was going to move a certain morning, 
got up early and went up and sat on my horse on a hill 
three or four hundred yards away, expecting to see a big 
fight, all of which blew up on account of the government 
having insufficient men to handle Payne and his organi- 
zation. 

A few days later Captain Carroll with tv/o thousand 
men marched down the North Canadian River, picking 
up these settlers who had gotten scattered, disarming them 
and driving them north to the Kansas line, taking Payne 
and the Couches to Anadarko and* keeping them there 
under guard until the government finally ordered them 
released. 

This raid, however, was so strong and got the people 
over the United States so agitated that they brought such 
pressure to bear on the government as to cause the govern- 
ment to make settlement with the Creeks and Seminole 
Indians, paying them $1.50 an acre in settlement of their 



A Ranchman of Oklahoma 31 

claim. The government then opened Oklahoma up for 
homestead purposes on April 22, 1889. 

This settlement was made by people gathering on the 
borders of Oklahoma, north, east, south and west, and at 
twelve noon, April 22nd, certain parties were selected to 
fire guns as a signal for the time for the people to start 
running for whatever lands they wished to make settle- 
ment on. Some went for farms, some went to townsites, 
such as Oklahotma City which had already been surveyed 
and laid out by the government. 

I had been in the ranch business all of my life, a large 
portion of the time in or on the border of Oklahoma. I 
naturally had an opportunity to know all of the old-line 
ranch men as well as practically every outlaw in this part 
of the country and a great many of the United States 
marshals and government officials who were then and had 
been in the past trying to keep down outlawry in the In- 
dian Territory, most of which was caused by whiskey 
peddling, cattle and horse stealing, etc. I personally knew 
all the Daltons prior to the time they turned out as out- 
laws. I was also well acquainted with Bill Doolin and his 
entire bunch. My first associate in the wholesale grocery 
business was United States Marshal E. D. Nix who was 
appointed by Grover Cleveland and had charge of the gov- 
ernment work in the first opening of this country under 
territorial forim of government. 

I am only able to state things in a general way. So 
many thousand happenings during all of this period which 
became common to me would be interesting to others and 
I hope some day someone who is well informed on the real 
facts from the beginning, I mean from the time that the 
government began to settle Indians on the lands that are 
new embodied in the State of Oklahoma, will write a 
history of facts, and this should be done soon for the 
benefit of school children. I do not believe that any state 
in the Union would be able to show so many different 
happenings which would be so interesting as would the 
history of the State of Oklahoma if properly written. 



CHAPTER IV. 

"HAPPY FANCY" 

By IvATE W. SEARCY 
I 

Monarcli proud, aloft it rose, alone vipon the plain. 

With roots deep-drilled that scorned alike the summer's drouth or rain. 

Prairie schooners off the trail, far-sighted men conveyed. 

They "squatted" there. A city great was platted 'neath its shade. 

Churches, schools and business blocks ; streets, alleys, avenues ; 

Playgrounds, parks and boulevards — these men had modern views. 

Enterprising builders boomed the magic city's stride ; 

Airs quite metropolitan were advertised with pride. 

Faithful to their primal vision loomed the old tree, plain. 

In the city's heart where Broadway intersected Main. 

"Happy Fancy" romance named it. Romance headed in 

Toward that Oklahoma city, where rainbows begin. 

Lovers loved to linger there beneath its green-leafed boughs — 

Arm by arm and heart by heart they voiced undying vows. 

Married couples sat there, too, and planned for joyous years ; 

Children played and climbed and swung^'twas place for songs and cheers. 

Barbecues and picnics gay, campmeetings, campaign talks. 

Church bazaars and orchestras, chautauquas, moonlight walks. 

Happy Fancy stood for all that made life glorified. 

Folks said they would leave the town if Happy Fancy died. 

II 

Came one day two cowboys gay. They sprawled beneath the tree, 
Reminiscing loudly on the days when range was free, 
"Wuzn't that a pasttime. Matt, when we breezed over here, 
Hangin' Blim on that there limb fer stealin' John Buck's steer?" 
"Bet yer spurs," said Matt, "it wuz. C'n see yit how he swung!" 
Kickin' out. An' then, jest think of all the rest we hung !" 
"What, by gun, would we hev done without this Hangin' Tree? 
'Old Law-an'-Order Gallows,' we called it, didn't we? 
Sunk their huns of skeletons at them roots, there, deep down. 
What you bet they's ghosts an' hants galore in this here town? 
" 'Member, Jones, how Broadley's bones looked rattlin' on this limb? 
He wuz sich a murd'rous cuss we never buried him ! 
Hangman's Tree ! Old bully tree ! Old God-send to the west, 
When nothin' but a loop o' hemp kep' manhood at its best!" 

Ill 

Horrified, the denizens of Happy Fancy stood. 
Gasped and shivered chillily, then went to sawing wood ! 
Beauteous boughs, substantial shade they long had deified. 
Gave them creps and miseries ; rank hatred replaced pride. 
With axes wielded fiercly, with saw and spade and pick, 

[32] 



The Possession 33 

They splintered the old landmark, their strokes and pulses quick. 
Grubbed the roots (the bonfire rose like ghost-wraiths to the sky) ; 
In the trench poured strongest brine and concentrated lye. 
Not till then did they feel safe from souls demoralized ; 
Safe from baleful shadows of the tree they erstwhile prized. 
Never now do pioneers hint that their city's fame 
Wealth and health, its very life, were built about a name. 
Flesh or phantom, ghost ungodly, saint — whate'er they be — 
Nevermore sit underneath the Happy Fancy Tree. 



THE POSSESSION. 
By Caroline Cain Durkee. 

Back of every enterprise stands a personality — a human 
being, thrilled with imagination, and glorified with faith 
in the ultimate success of his undertaking. When Okla- 
homa pauses for a brief instant to look backward, she 
smiles gratefully into the face of David Lewis Payne. 

Receiving but a scanty education, Payne eagerly ab- 
sorbed all the knowledge that studious reading could afford 
him, and in this way acquired the information which 
proved so useful to him in later years. Brave and ad- 
venturous, he served during the Civil War with the Tenth 
Kansas Volunteers — -known as the "Bloody Tenth." Later, 
v/hile serving as captain in the Nineteenth Kansas Cavalry, 
he became familiar with much of Western Oklahoma and 
learned many things about the land for which he after- 
ward labored so valiantly. 

In 1880, Captain Payne led a colony of "boomers" into 
the Oklahoma Country, locating near the site of Oklahoma 
City, where, close to the present entrance to Wheeler 
Park, Payne's own log cabin was erected. The colonists 
were arrested by government officials and were taken first 
to Fort Reno and later escorted by United States troops to 
the Kansas border. Here they were released, four months 
after the date of their invasion. 

Within a month, Payne returned to Oklahoma, to be 
again arrested. Five times did this indomitable human 
boomerang come back with a colony of "boomers" to the 
land which his agitation helped so materially to open to 
white settlement. 



34 ' The Romance of Oklahoma 

With the death of Payne in 1884, one of his most active 
lieutenants, William L. Couch, carried on the work with 
great energy and enthusiasm. It is said of him that once, 
while laboring in Washington for the cause to which he 
was so devoted, he pawmed his overcoat and lived upon as 
little as ten cents a day. Under him, parties of "boomers" 
struggled heroically to effect a settlement in Oklahoma, 
but abandoned their efforts later in 1885. At that time a 
bill was introduced in Congress providing for the legal 
opening of the public lands of the Indian Territory to 
white settlement immediately after the beginning of the 
first session of the Fiftieth Congress, one month later. 
And believing that they would soon be permitted to move 
and take peaceable possession of the land, the "boomers" 
ceased their efforts to force a settlement. 

But four years elapsed before they had this privilege, for 
it was in March that Benjamin Harrison issued a procla- 
mation, announcing the opening of the Oklahoma lands to 
white settlers at and after the hour of noon, on the twen- 
ty-second day of the folloviang April. After ten years of 
hardship and defeat, the "boomers" were at last to see 
their cause triumph. 

Scattered about among the multitudes who came from 
every state in the Union to make the race for new homes 
in a new land, these men who had spent their time and 
strength in the weary struggle for the right to settle in 
Oklahoma, stood, on that twenty-second day of April, ready 
to make the final run for the coveted ground. 

In wagons, buggies, carts, on horseback or on foot, 
ner\'-es taut, eyes strained to follow the movements of the 
patrolling cavalrymen, the throng — one hundred thousand 
strong — awaited the approach of the zero hour. It came 
at high noon. With it sounded the faint notes of a bugle, 
the subsequent firing of the cavalrymen's signals, and the 
answering shout of the mighty host as it swept outward 
and onto the promised land. 

No new occasion ever brought forth stronger new duties, 
nor called for the display of greater ingenuity than did 



The Possession 35 

this opening of the Oklahoma land. One group of prospec- 
tive settlers found themselves at the edge of the Salt Fork 
River, with no bridge between them and the opposite 
shore save that of the Santa Fe railroad. The terrified 
horses refused to cross upon the ties, set so high above the 
rushing water, and, at last, with the hardihood of true 
pioneers, the men unhitched the horses and with their 
ov^m sturdy arms, pushed the wagons across the bridge. 
When the last one was safely over, the horses were ridden 
into the water and made to swim across. 

An amusing incident occurred among a group of men 
who made the run from Iowa country. These men were 
camped along the Cimarron River the night before the 
run was to be made. When all was still, one member of 
the party slipped quietly away through the darkness to 
discover the safest path across the river. Carefully riding 
his horse across, and planting stakes to mark the location 
of treacherous quicksands, that he might easily avoid them 
on the morrow, he slipped back undiscovered by his sleep- 
ing companions. 

He was the first to cross the river. Others, who sus- 
pected that he was guilty of sooner exploiting, followed 
the line of stakes, thinking they marked the safest paths, 
but they were cauglit in the quicksand and delayed, thus 
giving the near-sooner his opportunity to secure his choice 
of the claims. 

Another type of "sooner" has been called the construc- 
tive sooner. These men based their rights to a premature 
claim on the new land on a false construction of the 
phrase, "enter or occupy," and a number of men were 
perhaps rather willingly led to believe that they might 
enter the land previous to the opening, stake off their 
claims and occupy them immediately after noon of the 
22nd. Needless to say, these claims were not allowed by 
the government. 

The next important opening was that known as the 
Cherokee Strip, which was ceded to the United States by 
the Cherokee Nations, after nearly four years of negotia- 



36 The Romance of Oklahoma 

tion. The sixteenth of September, 1893, was the date set 
for this opening. In an effort to prevent the unlawful 
entry of "sooners," prospective settlers were required to 
file a declaration, in writing, of their intention to make 
the run. - A certificate was then issued by a registry clerk 
and attached to the declaration, the whole being kept by 
the entrant as his identification when he appeared at the 
land office after the opening to file his homestead claim. 

In order to carry out this plan, nine registration booths 
were established in various places along the border. When 
Hoke Smith, then Secretary of the Interior, determined 
the location of these booths, he did not realize that the 
Oklahoma border was a blazing, sun-scorched prairie, with 
no accommodations of any kind — not even water. 

Again vast throngs of people assembled to wait for the 
opening. Registration was a painfully slow process, the 
number of booths being utterly inadequate to handle the 
crowds. There were many who remained in line for three 
days and nights, waiting their turns to register. The 
sun beat down mercilessly upon them, and a regulation 
Oklahoma wind sprang up, whirling clouds of dust and 
sand straight into the faces of the helpless throngs. 

In the midst of this discomfort, there appeared an enter- 
prising farmer, seated upon a wagon filled to the brim 
with watermelons. Had each melon represented a choice 
claim of land, the struggle to reach them could have been 
no more intense. Coins and bills of all denominations were 
recklessly pressed upon the owner of the melons, who 
standing upon the seat of his wagon, rapidly and indis- 
criminately tossed his tempting wares into the sea of 
out-stretched hands. Long arms and strong fingers 
snatched the prizes, but the spirit of unselfishness pre- 
vailed and the melons were divided and made to relieve 
as many parched throats as possible. 

No greater tribute can be paid these pioneer settlers 
than to say of them that, through all the stifling, windy, 
noisy hours of waiting, first to register and later to start 
on their runs, they remained determinedly good-natured. 



The Possession 37 

Just a few minutes before the signals were given, when 
suspense was at its height, a frightened jack rabbit darted 
suddenly from the edge of the crowd, out over the for- 
bidden ground. Instantly the air resounded with rollick- 
ing shouts of "Sooner! Sooner!" The sweltering, panting, 
jostling crowd laughed at its own humor, and felt the 
spirit of good-comradeship a bit more keenly than before. 

Yet, in spite of the good faith of thousands, the "sooner" 
again appeared, calm and serene upon his claim when the 
honest settlers made their appearance. In Perry alone, 
which was eight miles from the line, there were one hun- 
dred claimants on the townsite seven minutes after the 
hour appointed for the opening — each with a registration 
certificate in his possession. 

Naturally, there was more complaint than ever and a 
great deal of scandal involving those who played official 
parts in the opening. Four new land districts with offices 
where settlers w^ere to file their claims were established at 
Perry. Enid, Alva and Woodward. Furious quarrels sprang 
up at all these places among rival contestants, gamblers 
and rogues in general plied their trades among the un- 
wary, and lawless conditions generally prevailed for a 
short time. Before long, however, the law-abiding major- 
ity established order, and soon each new community raised 
a proud head and gazed fearlessly into the future. 

This opening of the Cherokee Strip added to the settled 
portions of Oklahoma seven new counties, which were 
known at first merely by letters of the alphabet, but were 
later named by vote of the people of the counties — Kay, 
Grant, Woods, Woodward, Garfield, Noble and Pawnee. 
The county seats were located by the government. The 
location of Pond Creek, the county seat of Grant county, 
was not strictly in accord with the views of a group of 
promoters who wished to build up a town of their own 
across the river from Pond Creek and some four miles 
distant. Accordingly, the one railway running through 
Pond Creek gave notice that it would not stop there, but 
would run on to the rival town and draw up at that sta- 



38 The Romance of Oklahoma 

lion. The residents of Pond Creek appealed to the gov- 
ernment, but, that slow moving body not acting quickly 
enough, they took matters into their own capable hands. 
With a determination, touched as much with the spirit of 
mischief as with that of retaliation, the men of Pond 
Creek removed a few rails from the track and went back 
to their work in quiet satisfaction. The train stopped in 
Pond Creek that day, and soon the stopping became 
habitual, — Pond Creek was a recognized station. 

Just one hundred and twenty-five years after the sign- 
ing of the Declaration of Independence, President McKin- 
ley announced that the surplus lands of the Comanche 
Kiowa, Apache Indians and of the Wichita, Caddo Indians 
would be opened to white settlers on and after the sixth 
of August, 1901. 

This opening was conducted by drawing lots. Each 
person who desired to take up a homestead was required 
to register. Their names were then written on cards 
v/hich were enclosed in blank envelopes. These envelopes, 
after a thorough shuffling, were drawn out and numbered. 
The applicants were then permitted to file on homestead 
claims at the district land offices according to the numbers 
on their envelopes. This system, while not entirely abol- 
ishing illegal settlements, w^s by far the most satisfactory 
one ever tried. 

The new land offices were located at Lawton and El 
Reno, and all registration was done at one of these two 
places. The work of shuffling and drawing the envelopes 
was all done at El Reno, and as there were about 16,000 
quarter sections subject to homestead entry, and ten times 
as many registrations, the excitement was intense. It 
was a brilliant day for the little town and one which thou- 
sands never forgot. 

Thus ended the last great land opening in Oklahoma, 
and thus began another colony of new homes in a strange 
country. Back of that country stands David L. Payne, 
whose life history is so well known. Following in his 
steps come the thousands of pioneer settlers of whom no 



Pioneer Schools 39 

word has been written, yet without whose brave struggles, 
Payne's efforts had been useless. Oklahoma, the magic 
State, Similes backward, not at Payne alone but bows in 
grateful admiration to the hardy pioneers who made 
Payne's dream come true. 

PION^EER SCHOOLS. 
Adele PIart Brown. 

The Oklahoma pioneers were restless, adventurous 
spirits, sometimes impelled by the cosmic urge to found a 
new home in a far land ; sometimes stung into action by 
the whip of necessity. 

They found already in scattered possessions, the descend- 
ants of more than fifty tribes or nations of Indians, poetic, 
imaginative, aloof, yet with a keen mentality — some of 
whom later, for the first time in Indian history, played an 
important part in the construction of the State. The Puri- 
tan and Cavalier, the Southron and the Northerner, 
came from the four corners of the earth, with mental 
equipment as varied as their native habitat — all singing 
the song of the sons of Esau — "So that we might wander, 
v/as the world made wide!" Because it is true that "I am 
a part of all that I have met," the modern Oklahoman is 
the composite embodiment of inherited tradition. The 
pioneers had been given educational advantages in their 
youth, and had brought with them the desire to widen the 
intellectual horizon of their children. They had broken 
the crust of many traditions when they fared forth in their 
covered wago-ns to the land of adventure; but underneath, 
still flowed the deep, hidden current of love learning. The 
ranchman, with the fine, stern honor of the open range — 
the planter, who won the battle of the wilderness, were un- 
compromisingly committed to the doctrine of the square 
deal, and felt that their children must not lose in the race 
of life because they were weighted with ignorance. So, 
they conspired to make the "Professor," whose university 
laurels had not yet withered, and who gathered his scat- 
tered flock daily at some central point, the most popular 



40 The Romance of Oklahoma 

man in the community, with more invitations to Sunday 
dinner than the Presiding Elder, of sacred memory. But 
again and yet again after a trial at "baching" in a dug- 
out, the Professor invariably concluded that it v^as not 
good for man to be alone, and went "back east" to the 
girl he left behind — sometimes returning with her to join 
the ranks of pioneers. 

Again ranchmen and farmers banded together and wire- 
lessed some fair damsel of their old home town, with a 
merry smile and a strong right arm, and promised fer a 
fair salary, a handsome saddle, with full equipment of 
slicker and spurs and quirt, and an elusive broncho for her 
individual use; — a chance to study huinan nature at first 
hand, as she boarded around among her patrons, — and 
most seductive of all, her choice of the multitude of young 
cowboys, who, one and all, were eager to lay their tall som- 
breros and their lariats at her feet. The charm always 
worked, and the first buckboard that brought the weekly 
mail from far away civilization, brought also a bright- 
eyed lassie who gladly followed the lure of the unknown. 
Sometimes, a lucky young cowboy with a singing heart, 
and his brand on a few mavericks, soon transferred her 
to his own claim in triumph ; but if she preferred her 
larger kingdom, she could set the pace for the community. 
She was the court of last resort, and many vexed ques- 
tions were referred to her for adjudication. 

On one occasion, the young and hospitable mistress of a 
near-by ranch, told the cowboys that each one bringing 
her a turkey, (wild, of course; bronze beauties are civili- 
zation's by-products), for the Christmas dinner, might 
invite a guest to the feast, imagine her consternation 
when nine of the boys appeared with the holiday birds, 
each privately confiding to her that the pretty little "School 
Ma'am" was to have his invitation. Even the boy who 
brought in an only antelope, had the same ambition. Only 
by quiet diplomacy, and the assertion that the young lady 
had already promised to be her guest, could the hostess 
preserve the friendship of the boys for each other. Tur- 



Pioneer Schools 41 

keys and the "School Ma'am" frequently graced her board 
thereafter; and the maiden smiled impartially upon the 
ex-Harvard man and the boy in his teens, who ran away 
from "God's country," to share the fascination of broncho- 
busting, trail-herding, and other amusements of the cow- 
puncher's life. Frequently the teacher was inveigled to 
the round-ups, and being mounted on a well trained pony, 
soon learned to "cut out" the desired yearlings. She ate 
sour-dough biscuits and hot steaks with zest at the chuck- 
wagon dinner, when the boys in a tin cup of coffee drank 
"to her health, her happiness, usefulness, marriage and 
wealth," each hoping to be the bridegroom. 

What did it matter to this young enthusiast that the 
children gathered round her in a sod house, with flowers 
nodding gaily from its earth-weighted roof? She never 
knew the tragedy of the unprepared. 

If text-books were from different states, or of varying 
editions, she bridged the chasm; and every ancient news- 
paper and magazine that drifted westward, was the basis 
of a geography lesson. Her botany class found Vv^ild 
fuschias in the arroyos, loco on the prairies and blue ager- 
atums and verbenas down by the little bubbling spring. 
Lacking chalk, they used the soft red stone from a hillside 
on their homemade blackboards. One young teacher, with 
an initiative which might have brought her fame or for- 
tune in a different environment, used the clay walls of 
her dugout school room for mathematical problems, smooth- 
ing them over between whilees with a dampened impro- 
vised trowel. Old Mother Necessity sharpens the wits, if 
she has material for the grindstone ! In fair weather they 
brought their rustic seats into the open and revelled in the 
ozone, as they absorbed knowledge under the brush-cov- 
ered arbor. 

And who shall measure the teacher's influence? The 
boys worshiped her, and shoed the depth of their ador- 
ation by greeting her coming with a roaring fire, by un- 
saddling and blanketing her broncho, and begging for the 
privilege of helping her mount. The girls shared their 



42 The Romance of Oklahoma 

lunches with her, copied her hair-dressing and manner- 
isms, and prayed to be like her some sweet day. To her, 
the dearest word in the voca'bulary was education; and 
she rang the changes on its values in their eager ears, till 
they seemed to be as many as spokes in a wheel. She 
fanned the flame of their ambition, till they brought live 
coals to the altar of efficiency. She thus found self-ex- 
pression in conscientious action, and was happy. 

When the dugout and adobe gave way to the little white 
school house, which served for "the cov/boys Christmas 
ball" and other revelries by night, and assumed a becom- 
ing dignity at the Sunday sei-vices of some preacher with 
a wandering foot, they enjoyed more style, but less com- 
fort. The big stove in the center of the room, whose fires 
were always red-hot, or on the verge of dissolution, was 
a spasmodic protection from the northers which some- 
times swept over the country with blizzardy force. But 
they learned to turn the other cheek, and if their hands 
were numb, their hearts were warm, and they reminded 
each other that ventilation was the vogue, and fresh air, 
nature's own elixir. Besides, the tempestuous breezes gave 
wings to invading germs and sent them beyond the bord- 
ers, thus justifying their boasting claim of the country's 
healthfulness. Even the barrel of "gyp" water, which 
stood at the door, and prematurely announced the coming 
dryness of the country, and the community dipper which 
remained immune in the face of abundant opportunity, 
were accepted with that philosophy which is the heritage 
of the westerner. 

The overworked mothers were glad to share their homes 
in turn, with the beloved teacher, even though in pioneer 
parlance, they only had "a box in every room" ; and she 
inspired them with a new sense of their blessed usefulness 
in giving good citizens — not vessels of dishonor — to the 
world. The annual picnic was a gala occasion, and the 
menu was a resurrection of unforgotten delicacies, with 
an additional western tang. The teacher vied with fond 
mothers in applauding the budding orators and incipient 



Pioneer Schools 43 

prima donnas, and all were oblivious to shifting sands and 
"the creepin', crawlin' critters" of the prairie. 

If, in some lonely hour, nostalgia tugged at the teacher's 
heartstrings, as she listened to the wind-voices of the 
prairie, and felt herself an insignificant atom in the broad 
vastness, can we wonder that she murmured, 

"Prairies wide, will ye always be 
Prisons, until ye are shrouds for me — 
Until I lie in your breast 
In my last, dreamless rest?" 

But the mood passed, as strong hearts will them to do, 
and galloping away on her faithful broncho, she caught 
at her waning energy and Richard was himself again. 
Horseback riding was a pleasure that never palled, wheth- 
er in the hours of golden moonlight when unbroken mag- 
nificent distances made vision deceptive, — or when the 
elusive mirage, shimmering in the noonday sun, showed a 
corner of a new world untrodden by the foot of man ; — 
always, who drew near to nature's heart, and the age- 
old balm of solitude, wrapt her soul in perfect peace. 

All this was before American life became complex and 
high powered as it is today; even before the memorable 
day when the flower-hung gates of the Land of the Fair 
God were thrown open to a surging mass of varied hu- 
manity, who came to found a new commonwealth ; before 
Uncle Sam, in the early days of statehood, in lieu of any 
public land in Indian Territory, gave us $5,000,000.00 to 
be invested for a perpetual public school fund; and before 
the state, receiving an additional grant by the Enabling 
Act, boasted a total of 3,100,875.94 acres for the use of 
the schools and educational institutions of the state. Some 
of this land may be sold under certain conditions, but 
most of it is leased, and the fund cannot be legally used 
for any other purpose. Sequoyah, inventor of the Chero- 
kee alphabet, left his foot prints on the "East side," and 
the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians had their own native 



44 The Romance of Oklahoma 

schools, which were supplemented by the zeal of early 
missionaries; — but that is another story. 

As time passed, the public school system prospered, and 
the County Superintendents, who were often women, be- 
came persons of importance. They were faithful and 
efficient, and many schools were named in their honor. 
Before the advent of our present net-work of railroads, 
they suffered many hardships in their long drives over 
rough, new-made roads, often crossing swollen, bridgeless 
streams at their peril. The wife of one of our distin- 
guished governors was one of these capable officials, who 
surmounted all obstacles in true pioneer fashion, and left 
a record of devoted service. 

Frequently, each child provided his own chair and table, 
and in one instance the sod school house was built for a 
home by one contestant, who sold out to the other claim- 
ant, and left the country. Our present educational sys- 
tem is very complete, with a college for girls, an A. and M. 
College open to both sexes. Normals in every section of 
the state, and a State University which is worthy of our 
enlightened citizenship. 

Our rural school buildings are well built, properly lighted 
and heated, and with modem, ventilation. The consoli- 
dated rural schools are increasing, having demonstrated 
their practical usefulness. With these improvements are 
combined better salaries, and higher preparation for 
teaching. 

But it does not inevitably follow that the teacher of to- 
day, magnifies his office as did his pioneer predecessor, 
who felt "the call" as insistently as though it had been to 
foreign fields, and ungrudgingly, gave her all. All honor 
to the teacher of by-gone days, who galloped gaily o'er the 
soil of these sun-kissed prairies, dominated by the spirit 
of service and courageous faith ! For deep in the heart of 
every individual who makes a success of life, is a micro- 
cosm, so every true teacher's career is an epitome of life 
itself, — with strength and weakness, — with bruises and 
consolations, — with successes and failures — ^but they fall 



^^,^ 



*%^.. 




GERONIMO. 



Pioneer Schools 45 

to rise again, and meet every challenge of the difficult with 
unceasing effort. Their abundant reward lies in the con- 
sciousness that they have breathed the breath of aspira- 
tion into some cold of inertia whose atrophied soul then 
woke to the true meaning of life. And, to have "saved a 
soul alive" — is not this compensation in full, for hard- 
ships and weariness and isolation? 



CHAPTER V. 



THE LIGHT OF THE CROSS. 

Mrs. Verner Early. 

To the Christian missionaries of all denominations, is 
due the Christianizing and the advancement of all the 
Indian tribes. These missionaries were men of the most 
unselfish character whose sole aim was to teach those 
people whose ideas of immortality and of the beneficence 
of God and his creation were of the crudest thought. The 
genesis of missions, was the Union Mission established in 
1820 by Rev. Wm. F. Vail who was sent by the United 
Foreign Missionary Society for Avork among the Osages. 
The first Protestant conference in what is now the State 
of Oklahoma was held at Union Mission from Nov. 2nd to 
7th, 1822; the session being from 5:15 a. m. to 9:00 p. m. 
The location of Union Mission was close to the salt springs 
where Campbell's salt works had been operated. In 1823, 
another mission was established for the Osages by the 
same society in the valley of the Grand, near the south- 
east corner of Craig County. It was called the Hopefield 
Mission. 

An epidemic of Asiatic cholera prevailed at these two 
missions in the summer and autumn, 1834. At Hopefield, 
there were sixteen deaths, including that of Rev. Wm. B. 
Montgomery, who was in charge of the mission. The site 
of Union Mission is known and identified but the last 
vestiges of its buildings have almost disappeared. Upon 
a wooded summit, near the site of the mission there are 
several graves. At one of these is a headstone, neatly 
chiseled from native stone, upon which appears the follow- 
ing inscription: . 

[46] 



The Light of the Cross 47 

In 

Memory of 

Epaphrus Chapman, 

Who Died 7 June, 1825, 

Age 32. 

First Missionary to the Osages". 

Say Among the Heathen, the Lord Reign eth. 

The Progress. 

Rev. Epaphrus Chapman, with Mr. Job P. Vinal, has 
been sent by the Foreign Missionary Society, on a tour of 
exploration west of the Mississippi, with instructions to 
select a site for a mission among the Western Cherokees. 
The Society was organized in New York City, July 25, 
1817, by the joint action of representatives of the Presby- 
terian and Dutch Reformed churches. Finding that the 
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
had already arranged to plant a mission among the West- 
ern Cherokees, Messrs. Chapman and Vinal pushed on up 
the valley of the Arkansas to the eastern part of what is 
now Oklahoma. A number of mixed blood people of the 
French-^Osage parentage had formed a settlement near the 
mouth of Chouteau Creek, and it is believed that some of 
them encouraged Mr. Chapman to locate his mission sta- 
tion in their neighborhood, so that their children might 
have an opportunity to attend school. The party which 
came west in 1820, consisted of Rev. Epaphrus Chapman 
and wife. Rev. Wm. F. Vail and wife, Dr. Marcus Palmer, 
six farmers and mechanics and six young women who 
were to serve as teachers and assistants. From Pitts- 
burgh, the journey was made entirely by boat. Low water 
and sickness interfered greatly with the progress of the 
journey, especially after reaching the Arkansas. Two of 
the young women died on the way and most of the party 
suffered from fevers. The Dwight, established in 1833, 
also the Park Hill Mission, established in 1830 by the 
same board, were located at the forks of the Illinois River. 



48 The Romance of Oklahoma 

The Park Hill Mission was the largest, and the Dwight, 
the most important ins-titiition of its class. This latter 
included the buildings of the missionaries, teachers and 
employees' boarding hall, a grist mill, shops, stables, bams 
(for an extensive farm was conducted in conjunction with 
the mission station), and printing office and book bindery. 
This Mission press was the first printing press in Okla- 
homa. Much of the Mission printing, first of the Chero- 
kees, then also of the Choctaws and of the Creeks, was 
done at the Park Hill Mission press. 

Rev. Loring S. Williams and Rev. Alfred Wright were 
the leaders who established the first missions of the Amer- 
ican boards in the Choctaw Nation. Although the work 
of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
missions was jointly supported by the Congregational and 
Presbyterian denominations, a large percentage of the 
missionaries sent to Oklahoma were from the Congrega- 
tional Church. 

Rev. Duncan O'Briant, who organized the work of the 
Baptist denomination in the new Cherokee country, had 
immigrated to the West, accompanied by eight Cherokee 
families who had become affiliated with the Baptist 
Church in their old homes in the East. 

The first Baptist missionary in the Creek Nation, of 
which there is any record, was Rev. John Davis, who, as 
a member of the tribe had been converted under the 
preachinig of the missionaries in the old Creek country, 
east of the Mississippi, and who had accompanied one of 
the earlier parties of Creek immigrants, who came to the 
Indian Territory probably the year 1831. 

The Endurance. 

Many years elapsed in which these missionaries suffered 
hardships, sickness and trials, yet we find the Methodist, 
Presbyterian and Baptist denominations had promptly 
resumed their work in the Indian Territory after the war. 
The Moravian mission in the Cherokee Nation also sur- 



The Light of the Cross 49 

vived, as did the Catholic missions among the Osage. The 
Benedictine Fathers, the first missionaries representing 
the Catholics, established themselves at Sacred Heart Ab- 
bey in Pottawatomie County in 1880. The first Prefect 
Apostolic was the Rev. Isidore Robot, 0. S. B., whose ap- 
pointment dated from 1877. The permanence of Cath- 
olicism in Oklahoma oves much to his persevering ef- 
forts. A native of France, he introduced the Benedict- 
ine order into the Indian country, choosing the home of 
the Pottawatomie Indians as the centre of his missionary 
labours. 

At this time, a few Catholics other than the Pottawat- 
omie and Osage Indians were scattered over this vast 
country. Soon after Robot's appointment as Prefect 
Apostolic, he had the foundations of Sacred Heart College 
and St. Mary's Academy well established, the latter under 
the care of the Sisters of Mercy. These institutions have 
grown and prospered. Father M. Bernard Murphy was 
the first American to join the Benedictine order and from 
1877 Vx^as a constant companion and co-worker of Father 
Robot until the latter's death. Father Robot fulfilled his 
charge well and laid a solid foundation upon which others 
were to build as the great state developed. He died the 
fifteenth of February, 1887, and his humble grave is in 
the little Campo Santo at Sacred Heart Abbey. Well did 
he say: "Going, I went forth weeping, sowing the word 
of God; coming, they will come rejoicing, bearing the 
sheaves." 

The Right Reverend Bishop Theophile Meerschaert, the 
first Bishop of Oklahoma, was born at Roussignies, Bel- 
gium. Coming to America in 1872, he laboured in the 
Diocese of Natchez, Miss., until 1891 — when he entered 
the wonder State, Oklahoma. By his example and his 
labours he has endeared himself to his own flock, and 
also to fair minded non-Catholics. When his adminis- 
tration began, his labours were difficult and perplexing; 
he was compelled to travel long distances and weary miles 
on horseback, railroad facilities being very meagre and 



50 The Romance of Oklahoma 

accommodations poor. In those days mass was celebrated 
many times in dugouts, no house being available, and 
churches being few and these only in the larger towns. 

Development has come with the multitudes of people 
who have come to this new countiy to make homes, bring- 
ing with them the best ideals of the old states from which 
they came. The labours of the bishop have been manifold 
on account of the great influx of people, but the Catholic 
has kept pace with all development. Most of the Indians 
of Oklahoma are Baptists and Methodists; some of the 
Pottawatomies are Catholics; among the Choctaws there 
are a great many Catholics, and the Osage tribe in the 
northern part of the state is entirely Catholic. 

The Catholics sent a priest with an escort of Spanish 
soldiers from Santa Fe to the Indians about the Wichita 
mountains. This was nearly two hundred years before 
any other missionaries came. There were no permanent 
results achieved from this first missionary effort. 

It is told that the first chimes from a church bell ever 
heard in Oklahoma came from a bell that hung in the 
belfry of a church at the Moravian Mission for the Chero- 
kees. The Moravian Mission organization was one of 
the earliest and one of the most presevering. 



The Achievement. 

Hanging on the wall of the room occupied by the His- 
torical Society of Oklahoma, located at the State Capital 
at Oklahoma City, is a sampler neatly hand-woven, which 
speaks for itself and tells so truly of the noble and inex- 
haustible efforts of the early ministers in their endeavors 
to educate and to inculcate the highest ideals in the lives 
of the Indian brother. 

The Sampler is a piece of ornamental needlework, woven 
by Ruth Phillips, a Cherokee pupil of Dwight Mission, 
and reads, 



• The Light of the Cross 51 

"To-day is added to our time. 
Yet while we sing it glides away; 
How soon shall we be past our prime? 
For where alas; is yesterday?" 

Rev. L. J. Dyke, a Baptist minister of prominence and 
worth, and a man of strong ideals and great strength 
of character, relates many interesting experiences of his 
early life as a missionary. Rev. Dyke is still in active 
service for his Lord and still proudly bears the escutcheon 
of Christ on which are emblazoned the arms of religion. 
He is one of the many of whom it was said, "Not mis- 
sionaries for a month or a year, but for life. These who 
had passed thru fiery ordeals and had stood firm. They 
had suffered willingly for Christ's sake, claiming re- 
v/ards only in Heaven." Rev. Dyke was appointed Gen- 
eral Missionary to Oklahoma one year after the opening 
in 1890. His supervision included white, Indian, and 
negro work. The first few years he roamed the prairies 
with horse and buggy, often sleeping at night under the 
buggy. His first sermon in Oklahoma City was preached 
in a so called hall over a saloon, on Broadway between 
Grand and Main streets. The first Baptist meeting 
house built in Oklahoma was at Dead Man's Crossing, 
eight miles Avest of Oklahoma City. It was of cotton- 
wood boards and would possible seat twenty-five people. 
There was no need of windows, the cracks let in sufii- 
cient light. The well known Oklahoma winds and sand 
played their havoc with the missionary. One man living 
in one of the early day shacks, relates that he and his 
wife used to take their meals on windy days, standing 
with their heads under the curtain of a box cupboard as 
a measure of protection from the sand and dirt. When 
it rained he used to pile his small library of eight volumes 
on the bad and cover them with his slicker as the only 
means of keeping them dry. 

One example of Rev. Dyke's usefulness and sympathy, 
is shown in the following story: 



52 The Romance of Oklahoma 

•'One time when driving north from El Reno, I saw, a 
little way from the road, three or four Indians apparently- 
digging a grave. I went to them and found they were 
burying a young woman, the sister of one of the men. 
The remains were wrapped in a piece of old tent cloth. 
The grave was about two feet deep. They could not 
understand English, so we could only talk by signs. When 
they had laid the remains in the grave, I indicated to 
them that I wanted to pray. We all knelt down, and while 
they could not know a word I said, yet they were moved 
to profuse tears, and shook my hand cordially and showed 
the greatest gratitude when I left them." 

Another incident that the Rev. Dyke relates, which 
has not the pathos of the above, is of his endeavors to 
organize a mission among the Comanche Indians. 

"Our District Secretary, Dr= Rairden, of Omaha, and I, 
visited their chief, Quanah Parker, who was living vdth 
his six wives twenty miles west of Ft. Sill, and secured 
his consent to build a church house in their midst. I 
v/ent to Vernon, Texas, eighty-five males distant, where 
1 bought sufficient lumber and had it hauled to the ap- 
pointed spot. 

Later, I secured the assistance of Bro. Firestone of 
Guthrie, a carpenter, and others, to build the house. 
When we proceeded to survey the ground, (this was 
about two miles from Parker's place), the Indians decided 
that we were about to take possession of some of their 
land. We could not make them understand our purpose 
so I appealed to Parker, He replied : "I don't care where 

you put the d d thing, just so you don't put it near 

me, or within one mile of any Indian claim." Some of 
the women took hold of me and shook me up in good 
fashion, and indicated to me by signs and grunts to get 
into my buggy and get away from there. There were 
possibly twenty of the Indians there. The men put the 
women forward: they did not dare moleiSt us themselves. 
We were obliged to move on six miles from this place, 



• The Light of the Cross 53 

to find a site sufficiently removed from any Indian claim 
that Ave could build on." 

The first v/hite settlers promptly turned their thoughts 
to religion. In the first summer after the opening to 
settlemient, a meeting place was established near the pres- 
ent station of Mehan on Little Stillwater. This place 
was fifty miles from a railroad and materials were not 
easily obtained, but logs were hewn and split in halves 
and laid across stakes to form rude benches. These were 
placed in the shade of a little grove where religious ser- 
vices were held until cold weather made the gathering 
impossible. 

The Tragedy. 

Fugitives from justice from the states were sufficiently 
numerous. It was not considered good taste or even po- 
lite to manifest interest bordering on curiosity as to the 
part of the country whence another man hailed. Rev. 
Dr. Theo. F. Brewer, a well kno-vvTi missionary and edu- 
cator, who was for years given supervision at Muskogee, 
tells of one of these unknoA\Ti fugitives and his dramatic 
end: 

'*A white m.an of unknown antecedents was employed 
by an Indian citizen who had a ranch some twenty miles 
from Muskogee. In the course of time this white man 
was arrested on the charge of stealing livestock. He was 
taken to Fort Smith, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 
a term in an eastern penitentiary. A year or two later, 
when in a dying condition, having contracted pulmonary 
tuberculosis, he was pardoned. He did not have a friend 
in the world, but when his pitiful condition was made 
known to his former employer, the Indian citizen, this 
man at once offered to take him in and care for him if 
he were brought back to Muskogee. When he arrived 
there, he was too weak to walk so he was taken to a near- 
by lodging house to stay until his former employer could 
send for him. As he was rapidly losing strength, he re- 



54 The Romance of Oklahoma 

quested that a clergj'^man be asked to call. A messenger 
was sent for Rev. Mr. Brewer, who immediately answered 
the summons. After talking to Mr. Brewer, the man 
expressed a desire to be baptized. Preparations having 
been made for the administration of the rite, the minister 
read the introductory part of the service, and asked the 
usual questions to which satisfactory responses were made 
and was proceeding to pronounce the name by which the 
man had hitherto been known, when he suddenly threw 
up his hand in a gesture of dissent, and exclaimed: 'Wait! 
Wait! I want to be baptized under by own name.' The 
minister saw in the man's face the evidence of a determin- 
ation to tell the part of his life story which he had con- 
ceal for many years; but just as he would have made it 
known, another paroxysm of coughing and he settled back 
on the pillow, dead, with his name, identity, antecedents, 
his home and life story hurled in the great oblivion, from 
which no life thought or story ever returns to be told." 

A Tragedy! you whisper, a fatal and remorseful event, 
yes, but only one of the many experiences which made 
and completed the wonderful romance of Oklahoma's ear- 
ly religious work. 

There was much persecution of the missionaries by the 
non-pregressive element which was in control in the Creek 
Nation. Rev. Mr. Joseph Island, who was affiliated with 
the Baptist denomination, was the preacher in charge. 
He had given his own home for a church, moving into a 
small cabin until he could build a new one. Many of his 
converts were whipped and he was often threatened. The 
controlling element, styled the Creek Council, had passed 
a law forbidding a white man to preach. The usual pun- 
ishment was fifty lashes on the bare back for any Indian 
or Negro in the nation who was found praying or preach- 
ing. Rev. Mr. Eben Tucker, the appointed missionary 
to Creek Indians, counselled the faithful Creek Baptists 
to assemble for worship, at convenient places just across 
the line, in the Cherokee Nation. Others who lived in the 
southern part of the Creek Nation, likewise crossed to 



The Light of the Cross 55 

the Choctaw country, to hold religious services. Many of 

the individuals, white, negro, and Indian, were scourged, 
yet they remained faithful. 



The Success. 

Geronimo, the famous Indian chieftain of the Apache 
tribe, boasted of ninety-nine scalps at his belt. Of his 
age we have no record ; he was perhaps, seventy-five, 
probably he had registered one hundred and ten years. 
His characteristics were those of a strategical warrior 
He was an untiring slayer of defenseless men, women and 
children and whom General Miles styled, "The Human 
Tiger." Geronimo was at one time the most feared, 
most despised, and most hated Indian fighter in existence, 
and his record of devastation and bloodshed is unequaled 
in the annals of American history. 

The mountains and deserts of Arizona were his rendez- 
vous. From those practically inaccessible haunts, he 
stole forth with his band of half naked savages, raided 
farm houses, settlements and villages. He did not wage 
an open warfare, but sought opportunities to rob, steal, 
and kill, through strategy and deception. The number and 
a^vfulness of his raids and exploits probably will never be 
known, as Geronimo himself and all his braves, while 
they could converse about the present day occurrences, 
yet maintained a blank countenance when incidents of 
their former lives were inquired into or commented upon. 

Perhaps he v.^as ashamed of his past, after he had con- 
fessed his sins, and had bowed his head in humble sub- 
mission to the white man's God. Perhaps Geronimo felt 
that his terrible past was blotted out forever when it 
was replaced by that mysterious supernatural power, that 
wonderful religion which he had accepted at the hands of 
the missionary. Nevertheless, Geronimo never referred 
to his past, after he was converted. His conversion 
makes an interesting story. 



56 The Romance of Oklahoma 

It was in Geronimo's village, in the shadows of Medi- 
cine Bluff, underneath broad branching pecans, that the 
annual fall revival of the Apaches and Comanches was 
held. Every Indian of the two tribes knew of the place 
and date. Services, beginning on Friday, were to con- 
tinue for three days. Beeves were to be slaughtered and 
rations distributed. T^\'o days before missionaries pitch- 
ed their camp, the valley was dotted with teepees and 
tents, and the place w^as made lively by baily clothed 
bucks and blanketed squaws mixing among numerous 
ponies and countless dogs. On the day set for the open- 
ing service, the squaws were maintaining well equipped 
camps, and they, with the bucks, were ready for the 
feast, physical, as well as spiritual. With the arrival of 
the preacher came his equipment, consisting of interpre- 
ters and helpers, a large tent for a tabernacle, organ, 
stands. Bibles and song books, together with private tents 
and a well supplied commissary wagon. The large gospel 
tent was stretched in the midst of the village and on the 
ground M'^as laid a canvas, the size of the tent. Camp 
chairs were provided for the preacher and choir. The 
Indians sat upon the canvas, the Apaches to the right and 
the Comanches to the left. The Apaches, being prisoners 
of war, were attired in the white man's garb, but the 
Comanches presented a more lively picture. There were 
robust, healthy Indians, some belted with geestrings, and 
others robed in blankets of striking colors, and all painted 
lavishly to indicate their rank and to set forth their deeds 
of valor. There was squaws with long, coarse flowing 
hair and flaming robes, with buckskin leggins and beaded 
moccasins. There were papooses encased in cornaks, 
all were closely crowded together on the Comanche side 
of the gospel tent. The services were conducted in En- 
glish. Old time religious songs were sung to the accom- 
paniment of a small church organ. Many of the wor- 
shipers seemed familiar with the proceedings, and joined 
in the singing. Geronimo sat upon a chair just in front 
of the organ and choir. His piercing eyes, overlooking a 



The Light of the Cross 57 

massive face, were fixed upon the Apache interpreter, 
and, closely watching every move, he seemed anxious to 
catch every word. During the lull in the service his 
head would drop upon his breast as if in deep meditation. 
But neither a move was made nor a word uttered by this 
picturesque chieftain. 

On Sunday, the last day, interest among the Indians was 
intense. Many had already been converted and the new 
Christians were active in bringing others to accept the 
white man's Jesus. The baptising was to take place im- 
mediately'' after the afternoon service. A great crowd of 
whites had assembled to witness the ceremony, and to 
extend fellowship to their new brethren in the church. 

When the preacher arose and approached the altar, one 
of the interpreters, a full blood Comanche Indian and a 
college athlete, arose and took a position to the left fac- 
ing his tribe ; the other interpreter, an Apache, uniformed 
in the khaki of a private soldier, stepped to the right of 
the altar and faced the remnant of a once proud, arrogant 
and dreaded band. The preacher announced his text, 
and immediately each interpreter announced it to his au- 
dience; sentence by sentence, the preacher's simple story 
of the white man's Omnipotent God was earnestly inter- 
preted and eagerly followed by the auditors. 

After the text of the last sermon had been expounded, 
the preacher extended an invitation to all the Indians as- 
sembled, to leave the red man's way and to take up Jesus 
and follow Him. Before the preacher had concluded his 
appeal, Geronimo, who had remained silent through all 
the services, followed by frail gray-haired men, who had 
never deserted their leader, silently but firmly made his 
way to the altar and gave his hand to the astounded min- 
ister. Here followed a scene which words are inadequate 
to portray. The same great uncontrollable spirit which 
a few years before had known the white only to hate and 
destroy him, now stood humbled at his feet, conquered 
by the white man's Christ. Geronimo asked to be ac- 
cepted into the church and, when his request had been 



58 The Romance of Oklahoma 

granted, the old chieftain, with tearful eyes and a tremb- 
ling voice, attempted to speak. But, after a few words, 
he was choked with emotion, and sank to his chair amid 
profound silence. 

Rev. Jno. B, McFerrinn, in 1826, received into the 
Methodist church, the celebrated chief, John Ross, of the 
Cherokees. This act exerted a great Christianizing in- 
fluence among the full bloods, and soon afterward, Turtle 
Fields, a noted Cherokee, entered the ministry and for 
many years was a faithful missionary among them. 

The Summit of the Years. 

We hear the Godlike edicts of the people as we stand 
on the summit of the years, viewing the trend of time 
as it forever moves onward and upward, but never back- 
ward. We see the minister and his religious work, like 
two rocks suspended by the side of the same waves of 
time, and offering a never weakening resistence as they 
look on the tide of the years which has beaten and push- 
ed them, now back, nov/ forward, until on the summit, 
they, with the hosts of others who have been benefited by 
their endeavors view the great victory wrought by their 
noble cause. 

We hear the voice of a people, a composite of the best 
from the many states that make up the United States, 
setting forth their religious ideals for their newly enter- 
ed state as the first essential in their constitution. For 
when the Congress of the United States, passed what is 
known as the enabling act, permitting the people of Okla- 
homa and of Indian Territory to form a constitution and 
to be admitted to the Union, it was provided in the first 
clause of said act: "That perfect toleration of religious 
sentiment shall be secured and that no inhabitant of the 
State shall ever be molested in person or property on ac- 
count of his or her mode of religious worship, etc., and 
that polygamous or plural marriages are forever prohib- 
ited." 



The Triumph of the Law 59 

A number of denominational colleges have been devel- 
oped in the former territory of Oklahoma, from the early 
missions. These include Kingfisher College, owned by 
the Congregational Church; Phillips Christian University, 
at Enid; Oklahoma Methodist University at Oklahoma 
City; Henry Kendall College, (Presbyterian) located at 
Tulsa; and the Oklahoma Baptist University at Shawnee. 
The Catholic College which was established at Sacred 
Heart in 1873 was moved to Shawnee and renamed the 
Catholic University of Oklahoma. 

The romance of the missionary is, in a special sense, 
the romance of the pioneer. For while others came to be 
hunters, farmers, mechanics, carpenters, teachers, the 
missionary, in his own person was all of these. As he 
preached the gospel, he must labor to provide his own 
food and shelter. And both as a means of winning a 
hearing for his gospel, and for the well being of his con- 
verts he became their teacher in all the arts of civilization. 
He was truly "all things to all men"; and in addition to 
his material efforts he was leader, actor and spectator in 
the great spiritual drama of life and death, which unfolds 
in the savage wilderness as in the heart of the great 
metropolis. 

THE TRIUMPH OF THE LAW. 

ZOE A. TiLGHMAN. 

In every normal boy's life there comes a time when the 
outlaw, whether Captain Kidd or Jesse James, is a hero. 
The doings of the James boys and the Younger brothers 
have thrilled a generation. It was, fortunately, an evan- 
escent thrill and most of those boys, past the bowie-knife 
and cave age, developed into staid and respectable citizens 
who shuddered at the name of Oklahoma, which conjured 
dire visions of Indians and outlaws. 

Outlaws and crime the Territory had. But let it be 
remembered that California and Nevada were as notor- 



60 The Romance of Oklahoma 

ious for their stage robberies as Oklahoma ever v/as for 
train hold-ups. These events are part of the history of 
every frontier. Nor is the reason far to seek. The wild- 
er lands offer retreat for those who have become unde- 
sirable citizens in their former homes. In the unsettled 
condition of the country they find both safety from the 
law, and fresh opportunity for a career of crime. 

Thus for years before the opening of Oklahoma to set- 
tlement the Territory became the dumping ground for 
fugitives from all of the older states. Most of them re- 
mained in the eastern part. The so-called civilized tribes 
maintained governments of their own and they had no 
extradition treaties with the government at Washington. 
The Indian law and Indian police were the sole agencies 
of justice. Thus, if a white man behaved himself reason- 
ably well, he was safe. For subsistence he could seek out 
som.e lonely spot along one of the many creeks, and with 
the timber at hand, erect a cabin. A small patch of corn 
cultivated in the fertile bottom would provide him bread 
and to eke out the game, he raised a few hogs, which ran 
wild in the timber. Often he w^ould marry an Indian 
woman, thus securing a right in the land. 

The children of these men grew up to evil. There is on 
record one family of eleven children, every one of them 
criminals — not of the petty thief order, but guilty of 
murder and other terrible crimes. The Indians and the 
church missions maintained some schools but in the sparse- 
ly settled country, the district school house was unknown. 
Children born in these remote and squalid cabins grew to 
manhood and womanhood without ever seeing the inside 
of a church or school house; many of them could neither 
read nor write. They could shoot and ride a pony — that 
was all. 

The United States courts had at length been given juris- 
diction in the Indian country. Selling liquor to the In- 
dians was foi'bidden, and this was usually the first step 
in a boy's life of crime. Whisky peddling and drinking 
meant a shooting scrape soon and then the boy "went on 



■ The Triumph of the Law 61 

the scout," a fugitive. In that wild country it was often 
possible to elude the officers for several years. Indeed, 
the force available found that they had plenty to do in 
running down the more desperate criminals and murder- 
ers. They worked hard and faithfully, and more than 
one marshal gave his life for the work. The annals of 
the Fort Sm.ith court are abundant witness to this. The 
famous Judge Parker who presided there for many years, 
found it his duty to pronounce the death sentence on 
eighty-eight men. 

Among these was Cherokee Bill, perhaps the worst, and 
in many respects typical of the Indian Territory bad man. 
He was of mixed blood, white, negro, Mexican, Sioux In- 
dian and Cherokee. He was entirely imeducated and was 
an out-and-out killer. After being lodged in jail at Fort 
Smith, he in some way obtained a gun and shot the jailer, 
for which last murder he was hanged. Before shooting 
he "gobbled" at the jailer. This gobbling was a peculiar 
noise to a turkey's gobble, and was a bestial sound uttered 
by the Indians when about to kill. It seems to have been 
confined to the eastern Indians. At another time in the 
Fort Smith court, a man pleaded killing in self defense, 
and in support of his plea it was shown that his oppo- 
nent "gobbled" at him — when realizing his danger, he 
shot first. His plea was allowed and he was acquitted. 

The account of this criminal class should not be taken 
as a reflection upon the Indian governments. Nor should 
these be considered as typical citizens. The majority of 
the tribes were honest, industrious and enterprising. 
They conducted farms and raised herds of cattle and 
horses; they had in their homes many refinements of civ- 
ilization, and they sent their children away to boarding 
schools to be educated. Then, too, many of the fugitive 
white men were persons of generally good character, driv- 
en thither by some unfortunate slip. And these, instead 
of sinking into the squalor of the poorer class, affiliated 
with the better Indians, and living uprightly, were assets 



62 The Romance of Oklahoma 

to their communities. This sharp division of classes, 
however, must be recognized. 

In the western part, which up to the time of statehood, 
was Oklahoma, different conditions prevailed. As long as 
the Indians were hostile, the white fugitives dared not 
go there. Moreover, it was policed by the garrisons of 
soldiers from the forts and no white man was allowed 
to stay in any reservation without a permit from the 
Indian agent. The only white man's dwellings, aside from 
those of the agency traders and employees, were the few 
ranch houses of the cattlemen. 

With the opening in prospect, the grazing leases were 
not renewed. The pastures were cleaned up, the cattle 
sold, and as the trains puffed out from the sidings, the 
cowboy's occupation vanished. There remained a few, 
a very few ranches in the Indian Territory, but these 
had not the big range, they were half farms. The cow- 
boy is not lazy. He works hard. He must go in all 
kinds of weather and spend long hours in the saddle. He 
is probably as tired at night as any other worker. But he 
feels at home only in the saddle. Often he despises other 
work; always he dislikes it. One of them tried to ex- 
press this feeling, but words failed him. Said he: "This 
looking up and down a corn row — GOSH." 

Few of them had the education and none of them the 
capital to engage in business. So, with the opening, some 
of them drifted west to seek the remaining ranges of 
Texas and Arizona. Some took up claims and settled 
themselves reluctantly to farming. And a few of the 
bolder and more restless spirits became the outlaws which 
for some years made the Territory notorious. The ma- 
jority of both the Dalton and Doolin gangs, the most im- 
portant ones operating in the Territor>% were ex-cowboys. 
They were used to riding and were skilled shots. They 
knew the country thoroughly, and they were able to have 
hold-outs at convenient places both in the Indian Territory 
and Oklahoma; either with some of the disreputable cit- 
izens of the "Nations," or with some ex-comrade who had 



The Triumph of the Law 63 

turned settler, and whose loyalty to their old friendship 
made his house a haven. 

Post offices, banks, trains and express offices were rob- 
bed in the Territories and along the borders of Kansas, 
Missouri and Texas. The express companies used to 
send extra guards on the trains and at one time refused 
to accept large shipments of money to pass through Okla- 
homa to Texas. A drastic law was passed making the 
penalty for train robbery life imprisonment. 

The Daiton gang met a tragic end in battle with the 
citizens of Cofieyville, Kansas, where they were attempt- 
ing the before unheard-of feat of robbing two banks in 
the same town at once. The only member of the gang 
who escaped death or capture was the one who was ab- 
sent — Bill Doolin. His horse had become lame and leav- 
ing the gang to procure another mount, he failed to reach 
them in time to take part in the raid. 

Perhaps he saw in his comrade's end the fate that he 
too must meet some day. But he had gone too far to 
turn back. Some time after this, in conjunction with a 
brother of the Daiton boys, he organized the gang which 
Vx'as known by his name. Though quite uneducated, bare* 
]y able to write his name and spell out a few words in a 
newspaper, learning which he acquired after reaching 
manhood, Doolin is described as a man of kindly and win- 
ning personality. His qualities as a leader were proved 
in the exploits of the gang under his leadership; and the 
fact that misfortune befell them as soon as they began to 
operate without him. With him, they conducted more 
successful operations than any other band in the history 
of the Southwest. They secured large sums of money, 
but frequently at cost of a fight, and there were many 
warrants charging them with robbery and murder. 

No net-work of telephone lines crossed the country in 
those days, the roads were often poor, and the outlaws, 
with intimate knowledge of the entire country, were able 
to evade the officers time and again. 



64 The Romance of Oklahoma 

A pitched battle was fou,<jht in the town of Ingalls, 
September first, 1893. It was almost a drawn engage- 
ment for though the officers captured one and wounded 
another seriously, and drove the outlaws out of town, two 
of their own number v/ere killed. 

Outlawry had become so bad in Oklahoma that Congress 
made a special appropriation for the purpose of ridding 
the Territorj^ of this trouble. The work was in the 
hands of the United States Marshal, and the most com- 
petent officers on his force were detailed for this work. 

Captain Heck Thomas, as a boy of twelve had served 
a,s messenger in the Confederate army. While yet a 
young man he had foiled the famous Sam Bass gang of 
outlaws in Texas and safely carried through the large ex- 
press shipment of money intrusted to him. He had, sin- 
gle handed captured two desperate outlaws for which the 
governor of Texas gave a special reward. William or 
"Bill" Tilghman had gained experience as an officer in the 
frontier town of Dodge City, Kansas. Chris Madsen, the 
third, had at the age of sixteen, fought for his native 
country, Denmark, against the Prussians. Later he had 
served in the French Legion in Algiers; then in the army 
of the United States, in the later Indian campaigns. 

With camp outfit and supplies in a spring wagon, with 
saddle horses and guns, the officers took the trail. Often 
they just missed the outlaws. But there was no giving 
up. One by one the gang was killed or captured. 

Doolin had married a minister's daughter, and a child 
had been born to them. His health was breaking from 
hardships and exposure. For the sake of his wife and 
child he determined to leave the country and begin a 
new life. He went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, to take 
treatment, and here Deputy Tilghman trailed him. Sin- 
gle handed, he arrested the King of the Outlaws and 
brought him to the Federal jail at Guthrie. From here, 
the outlaw escaped, and taking refuge near his wife's 
home, was killed by a posse while resisting arrest. 



The Triumph of the Law 65 

After this, only one organized gang appeared in the 
Territory. Little Dick who was the sole survivor of the 
Doolin gang, joined with two Jennings boys, Al and 
Frank, and the two O'Malley brothers, in what was known 
as the Jennings gang. 

They had but a brief career. Four months after their 
first hold-up, all but one were in jaiL Little Dick was 
killed some time later while resisting arrest. The gang 
had, in the four months, made several unsuccessful at- 
tempts to rob trains or banks. They were hungry, ragged 
and penniless. So in desperation they held up the Rock 
Island train south of Chickasha, in daylight. They tried 
to blow up the express safe with dynamite, but being ig- 
norant at handling the explosixes, they failed. They then 
robbed the passengers, getting about three hundred dol- 
lars, or about sixty dollars apiece when divided. They 
secured a bunch of bananas and a two gallon jug of 
whisky from the wrecked express car, which was the 
entire loot they got from the express companies during 
their career. Shortly after this, they robbed a country 
store of its small money till, and several suits of duck 
working clothes to replace their own ragged garments. 

Al Jennings, after serving a term in prison, wrote a 
story founded on his life, which many persons have be- 
lieved to be wholly true. But at the time when he repre- 
sents his romantic adventures, leading a gay life in Nevv^ 
Orleans society, and having various experiences in South 
America and Mexico, he was living in Pottawatomie coun- 
ty, where his father was judge; and was not even a fugi- 
tive from justice, as no v;arrant had been issued, or charge 
of crime made against him. 

The average career of the Oklahoma outlaws was three 
years. Bill Doolin desperate and resourceful, evaded the 
officers for eight years. But one and all, the strong hand 
of the law fell on them. 



66 The Romance of Oklahoma 

The outlaws, picturesque only in imagination, hard men, 
living a hard life, were destroyed by the tireless, brave 
and loyal work of the officers. The last terror of the 
frontier was ended, and the settler, in security and peace, 
could bend to his task of building a state that should be 
worthy of a star in the Flag. 



CHAPTER VI. 

GREER COUNTY UNDER SEVEN FLAGS 
Adele Hart Brown 

Texas, the Empire State of the South, with a domain 
reaching from the Liana Estacada to the smiling waters 
of the Mexique Gulf, — with boundless prairies — with ce- 
dar crowned mountains and canons of mysterious beauty 
— ^with forests of pine and the oleander of the tropics, — 
Texas has a history crowded with romance. There is not 
a blank page in her annals. Even the darkness of tribu- 
lation but throws into bold relief the rose-crowned days of 
happiness. May we disturb the dust of the archives, and 
look for a moment at her glorious past? The Mexican 
adage, "Whom the gods love, they let live in Texas," has 
found many echoes, for she has been the heart's desire 
of many nations. Her turquoise skies have looked down 
upon six flags, as they floated in her translucent atmos- 
phere, each leaving it a bequest of enrichment. 

The lilies of France, symbolic of love and loyalty and 
beauty, unfurled by La Salle as a gift to Louis the Mag- 
nificent — the colors of Spain with her long history of 
aristocratic grandeur — of Mexico, with her unforgotten 
coercion and tempestous tyranny — the Lone Star of the 
Republic, bought with the blood of many heroes in the 
long struggles for independence — ^the Stars and Stripes, 
which she unfurled when she gave herself and her bound- 
less resources to the Union, and voluntarily relinquished 
a brilliant destiny that she might be the fairest in the 
galaxy of states — ^the Stars and Bars, for which our fath- 
ers suffered and our mothers mourned, when she joined 
the sister states of the South in defense of states' rights 
— her unquestioned loyalty when the arbitrament of war 
decided for all time we were to be a united nation — one 

[67] 



68 The Romance of Oklahoma 

and inseparable — with such chronicles as these, what 
more could she ask for her children than the gift of 
remembrance ? 

Texas history goes back to those epic days when reality 
was romance, and every heart throbbed with the courage 
of a crusader. Fate threw into the melting-pot the stern 
patrioit, the soldier of fortune, the gay adventurer, and 
the flotsam and jetsam of an unguarded coast; and fused 
by the fires of chance, the crucible answered with refined 
gold. For the enthusiasm of restless spirits inspired ^vith 
new courage the sturdy pioneer, when the vision in his 
eyes darkened with hope deferred. All united under the 
oriflame of liberty and fought for an ideal, and exulted 
together in success. 

All this unique history is Greer County's heritage, since 
she was indisputably a part of Texas for more than a 
century. Greer originally had an area of 1,500,000 
acres, and was bounded on the north and east by the 
North Fork of Red River, on the south by the South Fork 
of Red River, and on the west by the 100th meridian. It 
was considered a part of the Texas Republic, but as early 
as 1859 the United States made claim to it. In 1819, a 
treaty had been drawn up between the United States and 
Spain, defining their boundary line and the Red River 
formed a portion of this boundary. V/hen, years after- 
ward, this river was more fully explored, it was found to 
have two forks. Texas claimed the North Fork to be 
the principal fork, and hence the Red River meant in the 
treaty. The United States claimed the South Fork to 
be the one meant in the treaty, which would throw Greer 
County north of Texas, in the Indian Territory. In as- 
sertion of Texas' claim to this tract, the Texas legisla- 
ture, in 1860 named this county Greer, in honor of a- 
former Lieutenant Governor. Stockmen began to range 
cattle on the Greer county lands soon after the disappear- 
ance of the buffalo, the first settlements being made in 
1880. Many settlers were veterans of the Mexican war, 
who were given patents to a section of land by the State 



Greer County Under Seven Flags 69 

of Texas, and immediately located homes on its rolling 
prairies, and the slopes of its granite mountains. The 
settlers had many tragic moments: in the summer of 
1885, they were warned to leave, by the Federal authori- 
ties, and attempts were made to remove them as intrud- 
ers, by the troops; but they remained, and were not again 
molested. As the county became more thickly settled, 
the question of ownership increased in importance. In 
1885 Congress decided to have four commissioners ap- 
pointed by the President, to meet four commissioners 
froon Texas, to settle the matter. The Texas legislature 
agreed and Governor Ireland appointed J. T. Bracken- 
ridge, W. S. Herndon, William Burgess and George R. 
Freeman to represent Texas. The commissioners met 
February 23rd, 1886, and spent several weeks carefully 
investigating the matter. When the final vote came, the 
four United States Commissioners favored the South Fork 
as the Red River of the treaty, while the four Texas Com- 
missioners favored the North Fork. 

Texas claimed that when she became an independent 
Republic in 1836 that she acquired a good and valid title 
to all territory rightfully claimed and included within 
the limits of the Republic of Texas; that on the 29th day 
of December, 1845, when the Republic of Texas ceased to 
exist and her territory became one of the states of the 
Union, that the United States eliminated the question of 
boundary from further dispute between Texas and other 
governments, and guaranteed to her the peaceable pos- 
session and right to dispose of her lands as she deemed 
proper; and therefore, that the United States was forever 
estopped from re-opening the question of boundary. 

President Cleveland in 1888, issued a proclamation, 
warning settlers against buying property in Greer County, 
as if the land be proven to belong to the United States, 
their titles would be void. Nevertheless, Texas continued 
to have faith in the validity of her title deeds; and in 
1888, Greer County having the requisite population was 
duly organized under the laws of the state of Texas, Man- 



70 The Romance of Oklahoma 

gum was chosen as the county site, and was named for 
Col. A. S. IVIangum, formerly of Sherman, Texas, a vet- 
eran of the Mexican War. Greer County was made a 
part of the Forty-Sixth Judicial District of Texas, and 
Judge G. A. Brown, late Associate Justice, Oklahoma Su- 
preme Court, being judge of the district, presided over 
the courts continuously from 1888, to March 16, 1896. 
The first term of court w^as held under a tree, the few 
residences being dugouts, because of the prohibitive prices 
for freighting lumber. However, a rough shack had been 
provided, when the second term was held six months later. 
The Greer County case had been carried to the Supreme 
Court of the United States, but the final decision was 
against Texas, and by act of Congress, approved May 4, 
1896, it was declared the property of the United States, 
and the county was reorganized under the laws of Okla- 
homa Territory. 

It was an exciting moment in Greer County history, 
when a galloping messenger brought the news just flashed 
over the wires that Greer County was no longer a part 
of the state of Texas. Strong men were moved to emo- 
tion, and women gave way to tears. They were Texans, 
and had been thrust out of their native state. The court 
was eng'aged in the trial of an important case — ^but Judge 
Brown immediately adjourned court, having no further 
jurisdiction. It is an interesting coincidence thart; Judge 
Brown was the last Judge of the Texas regime, and the 
first after statehood, having removed to Mangum several 
years previous to that time. One of the jurors of Judge 
Brown's last term, John Rose, also served on the first 
jury after statehood, and is still a resident of Mangum. 

There was a strong personal attachment between Judge 
Brown and the Greer County settlers, the unwritten law 
of the pioneers being a warm, unquestioning loyalty. At 
their solicitation, he went immediately to Washington to 
intercede with the powers that be, asking that Greer 
County settlers be given a preferential right to their land 
and improvements. President Cleveland and Attorney 



The Chisholm Trail 71 

General Harmon approved; a bill was drawn and imme- 
diately passed by Congress, and the settlers were made 
secure in their possessions. 

But, again did the hand of Fate carve history out of 
"Imperial Greer." The Constitutional Convention, see- 
ing her fertile soil, her rolling prairies, with outcropping 
bluffs of gypsum along the streams, her forest lands, her 
wonderful granite mountains, divided this broad domain, 
taking part of her territory to add to Beckham County on 
the north and creating two new counties. Jackson and 
Harmon, on the south and west, leaving "Little Greer" 
in the center, and thus cutting her off forever from the 
LfOne Star State. But, although she thus transformed 
her allegiance to the "46th" Star — ^the mystic seventh 
flag of her history, and is now a loyal daughter of Okla- 
homa, yet those annals of grandeur and glory, of cruelty 
and oppression, of battle and conquest that glorified the 
Lone Star State, are hers to hold forever. The heroism 
of the Alamo, that Thermopylae that had no messenger 
of defeat — ^the conquering courage of San Jacinto, which 
unafraid, burned its bridges on that April day when Tex- 
as was made free — can Greer County forget these fateful 
days? 

So long as her Granite Mountains keep watch beside 
the river of her destiny, and the balmy southern breezes 
whisper of the Mexique Sea — ^so long shall Greer County 
remember! Like the scattered beads from the rosary of a 
hand worn out in service — each bead the record of an 
answered prayer, these sacred memories are shrined in 
her heart forever. 

THE CHISHOLM TRAIL 

Mrs. Ada Pitzer Slocum. 

In the spring of 1865, Jesse Chisholm, the veteran 
Cherokee trader, set out from his temporary residence 
near the muoth of the Little Arkansas River (the site 
upon which the City of Wichita, Kansas, has since been 



72 The Romance of Oklahoma 

built), on a trading trip to the valleys of the Canadian 
and Washita Rivers, in the Indian Territory. 

With several wagons loaded with goods adapted to his 
purpose, he followed the faint trail which had been left 
by the retreating column of Federal troops under the 
command of Colonel Emory. 

The main cattle trail crossed the Red River at Red 
River Station near the present town of Ringgold, Texas. 
It followed a course almost due north across the extreme 
western part of the Chickasaw Nation, keeping well to 
the East of the Kiowa-Comanche and Cheyenne- Arapaho 
Reservations. 

A short distance South of the Cimarron River crossing 
(near the present town of Dover) it joined tlie Chisholm 
Trail, which was followed to the crossing of the Arkansas 
River at Wichita, Kansas. 

The name of the Chisholm Trail, which was originally 
a road traveled by traders from the Arkansas River to 
the Washita, was extended to include the cattle trail clear 
down to, and beyond the Red River. 

In 1871 the Chisholm Trail terminated at Ellsworth, 
Kansas, a distance of three hundred and fifty mjles from 
the Red River Station, but of course the terminals changed 
with the coming of the railroads. 

The following is taken from an old copy of the San 
Antonio Express and is quite a unique advertisement of 
the railroads at that time. 

1871 TO Texas Cattle Drovers. 

With the approach of the season for cattle shipments, 
renewed efforts will be made by the several lines of rail- 
way now competing for your trade, to induce you to give 
their new, and in some cases, untried routes another 
trial, and while your experience of the past will, in a 
great measure, guide you in the future, it is proper your 
attention should again be called to the important advan- 
tage of adhering to the old established and reliable Kansas 
Pacific Route, in regard to which, all stock shippers seem 
united, — 



The Ch]sholm Trail 73 

1. Our Trail has been reduced in distance some eighty 
miles, making the drive seven or eight days less than in 
former years. 

2. The M^estward location of our trail enables you to 
cross your cattle at or near the heads of streams, where 
they are narrow and more easily passed than on trails 
farther eastward, where you are compelled to cross at or 
near the mouths, where they are deeper and wider, and 
approaches more difficult. 

3. The general advantages from the superior grazing 
along the trail, freedom from timber or underbrush; 
absence of flies and ticks; abundance of pure water and 
convenient distances, rendering long and exhaustive 
drives unnecessary; country free from flinty rocks and 
steep breaks, are sure that cattle driven by this route 
arrive at their destination in better condition, and there- 
fore command higher prices than those driven by other 
routes. 

4. As the Trail is through a thinly settled country, 
drovers are not subject to molestation from settlers, they 
have no taxes to pay, and the streams being fordable, no 
ferriage is necessary. 

5. The greater experience of the Kansas Pacific Rail- 
way with this particular trade, which contributed so large- 
ly to the satisfactory result of the business the past year. 
The pre-eminence of Abeline as a cattle market, and well 
known point of shipment, and the additional facilities 
afforded at Solomon, Salina, Brookville and Ellsworth. 

6. The policy of express stock trains, the immense 
equipment of First Class motive power and rolling stock, 
especially adapted to Texas stock trade; recent arrange- 
ments by which all yards on the line of road are made 
free to shippers, superior hotel accommodations and bank- 
ing facilities, and lastly, the low or lower rates of freight, 
all show a better comprehension of this business and more 
thorough organization to do it than has yet distinguished 
the efforts of other lines. 



74 The Romance of Oklahoma 

7. New Union Stock Yards are to be built at Kansas 
City, for the trade of this season, and are intended to be 
as complete in their appointments as the Union Stock 
Yards of Chicago, and will have a capacity of over 20,- 
000 head of cattle, with the object in view to hold cattle 
for a considerable time if desired. It is the intention to 
make a general cattle market at Kansas City, where buy- 
ers and sellers can come together, and a drover arriving 
at any station on the road with a herd can ship at once, 
and be sure to find a market when his animals arrive in 
Kansas Citj\ 

The following shows the table of distances and the 
points between Red River and Ellsworth, Kansas. The 
table was taken from an Ellsworth paper of date contem- 
porary with the trail. 

Table of Dlstances. 
Dis. bet. 

points. Tot. dis. 

Red River Station to 

3 5 Beav^er Creek - 15 

15 Monument Rock 30 

15 Stage Station ....- 45 

20 Rush Creek, Head of... 60 

12 Little Washita 72 

14 *Washita Crossing at Lino Creek 86 

14 Hills of Canadian 100 

10 CANADIAN RIVER 110 

12 *North Fork 122 

11 Prairie Spring .133 

11 *King Fisher Creek 144 

8 RED FORK 152 

6 Turkey Creek 158 

12 Hackberry Creek 170 

Shawnee Creek - 178 

12 *Salt Fork — 190 

3 Pond Creek . 193 

12 Pole Cat Creek 205 



In the New Territory 75 

8 *Bluff Creek 213 

12 *SHAW-A-OOS-PAH RIVER 225 

13 Slate Creek 238 

12 *Ne-ne-squa River ...250 

12 Cow Skin Creek 262 

6 ARKANSAS RIVER 268 

10 *Little Arkansas 278 

18 Sandy Creek, Head of - -296 

44 BROOKVILLE 340 

49 Salina .345 

51 Solomon 347 

54 Abeline - - 350 

54 Ellsworth -350 

* Trading Posts — where supplies can be obtained. 

IN THE NEW TERRITORY 
Mrs. Ada Pitzer Slocum. 

"He" wanted to come to Oklahoma in 1889 when the 
country was first opened, but at that time he was very 
busy courting "Her" and Oklahoma had to wait, however 
late in the Fall of 1891 he ran down to look things over 
and decided it was the "Coming State" and he must get 
there and, as he expressed it, "get in on the ground floor." 

"She" did not want to leave her friends and relatives 
and come to a new country, but there had been county 
seat fights and much trouble in which they were more or 
less concerned, so when he promised her that he would 
keep out of politics and stick to his law business from that 
time on, she finally consented to come — how he kept his 
word these pages will disclose. 

Just six months after the little family reached Okla- 
homa, he was elected Probate Judge of his county — the 
first republican to be chosen in the county. He held this 
oflfice until he was elected and qualified as President of 
the third Legislative Assembly, and was preparing for 
something higher when the Judge of all men called him 
before the last Tribunal. 



76 The Romance of Oklahoma 

The methods by which law and order were maintained 
in this new country during these early days were, to 
say the least, rather primitive. To be sure there wert. 
officers of the law — first appointed by the President, and 
later elected by the people, and there were all kinds of 
civil cases, as well as, not a few criminal ones, many of 
the latter the outgrowth of feuds, caused by conflicting 
land titles and other similar causes. Many of those early 
disputes were settled in the old primitive manner, with 
the gun, which was ever ready to hand in those days and 
it was just a question of being "quick on the trigger." 

The first Legislature did very little, except to squabble 
over the location of the Capital and to adopt a code of 
laws from another State, and subsequent legislatures have 
been kept busy eliminating such laws as were not adapt- 
able to our locality. Many amusing, as well as disgust- 
ing scenes occurred at the meeting of the first legislature 
at Guthrie. At one time a bill was before that body for 
the removal of the Capital to Oklahoma City — as happen- 
ed at the convening of every assembly — and it was sup- 
posed that the bill was in possession of the Hon. Dan 
Peery, of El Reno, who was a member of the first House 
of Representatives, as well as several subsequent ones. 
In order to prevent consideration of the bill, he was chas- 
ed out of the House, by the Guthrie delegation, through 
the Council Chamber and finally hid himself in an unused 
ice-box, where he remained several hours, and perhaps it 
was as well that he did not put in an appearance very 
soon. 

The first judges being appointed by the President were 
for the most part "Carpet Baggers" and for that reason 
were not very popular with the masses of the people and 
not always with the lawyers who had business before their 
courts. There was much resigning and changing of offi- 
cers from the Governor down, and as the Supreme Court 
was composed of the District Judges, on account of un- 
pleasant feelings M'-hich occurred between the lawyers and 
judges before whom thej'' tried their cases, they could 



In the New Territory 77 

never be certain of the outcome of those cases when they 
reached the Supreme Court. 

It was not a very desirable time for a man to bring 
his family to live in this turbulent country, but many did, 
and while most of the men rather enjoyed the fussing 
and bickering, it was, as some one aptly expressed it 
"hell for women and babies." 

There were more saloons in every town than any other 
kind of business, and for one who had lived in a prohibi- 
tion state, this was something just a little hard to get 
used to. It was difficult at this time to decide which of 
the two evils brought more grist to the lawyers' mill, the 
saloon or divorce. Most criminal cases were caused in 
the first place by whisky, and the "Girl" from a prohibi- 
tion state had many amusing, and some very embarrassing 
experiences. Soon after her arrival and while still at the 
hotel, she met a lady who was from her state; they soon 
found they had many friends in common, and becatme, 
themselves quite friendly in a short time. Of course the 
question soon arose, "how do you like Oklahoma?" Our 
girl being very outspoken and knowing nothing of the 
business associations of the other's husband, replied: "I 
think I should like it very much if I could get used to 
saloons, but I have to pass, at least one in getting to my 
husband's office and I cannot get used to it." The other 
lady demurely replied, "I do not like saloons very well 
myself, though it is my husband's business." 

For several years our divorce laws were very lax and 
you could get a divorce on almost any provocation, or 
sometimes none at all. I have many times heard lawyers 
say, "If you want a divorce just take it to Judge Henry 
Scott at Oklahoma City, as he never refuses anyone." I 
remember reading a letter from a very prominent man in 
another state asking upon what grounds one could get a 
divorce in Oklahoma, and I also saw the reply to this, 
which in substance was, "Come on dovni and we will fix 
you out with one on almost any grounds." For several 
years people came from New York and San Francisco 



78 The Romance of Oklahoma 

and remained just long enough to secure their divorce, 
which at that time was three months. Those who lived 
here could get a divorce in the morning and marry again 
in the afternoon. One very amusing incident occurred 
during the last days of easy divorce. The couple lived 
in New Jersey — I think — and the wife left home for the 
summer— presumably — ^to visit friends and arranged with 
some friend to receive and forward her letters from 
"Hubby," and in the meantime came to Oklahoma, settled 
at Guthrie and applied for a divorce. When she was well 
out of the way, friend husband followed suit and estab- 
lished himself at another town near where his wife was 
located. Both received their decree the same day, and 
both being in somewhat of a hurry, took the afternoon 
train for the north, reaching Arkansas City at the same 
time and stopping at the eatinghouse there for supper. 
The meeting took place in the dining room and as described 
by eye-witnesses, was quite exciting. 

The colored people wanted to keep up with their white 
brethren and Rastus was no exception to the rule. "Mr. 
Jedge," said he one morning, as he rested from his labors 
of sweeping the courthouse, "Ah, jist bin calculatin' to see 
you all 'bout gittin' a vorce from Malinda." '^"WTiat's the 
matter, Rastus, don't you and Malinda get along all 
right?" "No, Mr. Jedge, she all won't let me come home 
any more." "Well how will a divorce help you?" "AVell 
you see, Mr. Jedge, ah know a nice woman ah can get 
married with if ah can get 'vorced from Malinda, and she 
makes three or four dollars a week washin'. Rastus had 
no money, but he tormented every one so much about his 
"vorce" that finally the county officers chipped in and 
helped him get it. All was serene for a few weeks, when 
again he appeared before the Judge and requested another 
"vorce" from Number 2. "Why Rastus, what is the mat- 
ter," asked the Judge, "Don't she get enough washing to 
keep you?" Rastus hung his head and replied, "Yes, Mr. 
Jedge, she gits plenty washin', but she won't give me any 
of the money." There v/as no second divorce. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE GROWTH OF OKLAHOMA CITY. 
IMPRESSIONS IN 1913. 

By Bertha M. Coombs. 

In the first place I want to say 'at it wouldn't be possi- 
ble for any living human bein' to write a story 'at would 
be as live as our town is, because "our" town is Oklahoma 
City, an' everybody knows 'at it is the very livest town 
that ever jist happened to happen. 

Why, twenty-three years ago we didn't have no town, 
nor no nothin' but prairie with a wind over it, and today 
if a feller goes in one o' our sky scraper buildings an' 
don't come out the same door he went in at, he can't find 
hisself unless he's got his name and address plainly writ- 
ten on him somewhere, so a politician can look up his 
records and find out who he is and where he lives at. 

Why, in our town we all have got one man 'at is as big 
as our town's going to be, and twenty-three years ago he 
didn't have nothin' either, but he just got 'im a job, and 
one day he said to hisself 'at he was tired of having people 
tellin' him all the time just what he ought to do, and 
where, and when and why, and he went to his home, and 
he says, talking to hisself, "Blame me I b'lieve I'll buy 
me a little bit of land up north here that nobody wants 
much, and see if I can't persuade some of these here 
fellers, 'at is always tellin' me where to get off of, that 
they want that land out there worse than they want some 
other things. There's other things that kin be white- 
washed, says he, besides the fence Tom Sawyer made such 
a easy mark of." "Blame me," ses he, "There's whole lots 
o' fellers in this town that's selling groceries at fancy 
prices, and patent medicines, and coal stoves and brass 

[79] 



80 The Romance of Oklahoma 

bedsteads, and instid o' puttin' all that money back in 
their business, they could be buying lots o' me, and then I 
couid tell some of them just where to make their payments, 
and how often." 

And blame me, if he didn't do just that, and he built 
'im a nice house, and he fixed it up just as nice, with new 
fangled, jim crack things that he'd seed advertized in the 
back o' magazines, an' along came the wife o' one of the 
fellers what had more dollars 'an he needed in his busi- 
ness, and she got stuck on the house, and nothin' would 
do but she must have it, and put on some style, like she'd 
read of in the stories in the fronts of the magazines, and 
she got it, and then this first feller he built 'im another 
house, an' made it a little bigger, and a lady friend of 
the "first lady saw it, and she went home and went up nice 
to her husband, like ladies usually do just before Easter, 
and she knowed he had a lot o' dollars 'at he didn't know 
what to do with, an' she fixed him the nicest kin' o' supper 
and tol' him 'at she was sure glad 'at she'd got him sted 
o' some fellers 'at went to school with her, an' then she 
tol' him about the nice house wat this feller 'ad built an' 
he says, "Dog-gone me, Mame, but Fm going to get you 
thet house," and' she says, "No, 'at it was too expensive a 
luxury for 'em," but he wouldn't have it thet way, and he 
got her the house, an' pretty soon all the bong-tong people 
was after houses and lots out there, where it was all 
prairie dog homes, and red clay dirt at fust, and the fust 
feller he begun to wonder what he was goin' to do with 
the cash an' payments thet was comin' in. 

Well, finally, "Blame he" ses he, "I believe I'll build me 
a get-your-nickle-ready, trolley pole street car sistem jes 
to use up the dough," ses he, and sure enough he did thet 
very thing, an' the money it kept comin' in faster an' 
faster, an' the feller, he had to keep readin' in the bacl-cs 
o' magazines awful fast to keep the town ahead o' the 
money, an' he built sky-scrapers, an' improvement parks. 
an' donated to all they thet was hard-up, and never said 
"no" to orphan asylums an' other charit-able institutions, 



Antelope's Sorrow 81 

an' he was the fust to git a sleepin' porch and the fust to 
have one o' those electric coop-es that run without any 
horse bein' hitched to em anywheres, an' then lots o' 
people thet would have loved to a bought that tract o' 
land, if they'd jest thought about it, said lots of awful 
mean things about 'im, an' how sinful it was for one man 
to be so rich, when lots o' people that was too lazy to read 
magazines was starvin'." 

And one day — which is wat started me to think o' this 
story in the fust place — a stranger cum to town, and was 
bein' showed and scorted around in a au-to-mo-bile, and 
he asked, "Who do this b'long to?" an' "Who do that 
b'long to?" an' the folks that was showin' him around 
said, "Why the Lord owns that river," and the stranger 
said, "Why how did the Lord ever happen to git it away 
from the feller that owns this town?" 



ANTELOPE'S SORROW. 

By Pearl Futrell Hillman. 

Fenton Antelope was a very worthy Indian, whose dig- 
nity was the e>mbodiment of all the best manhood in a 
race of warriors. When Fenton Antelope walked up and 
down the pavements of our little city, he wore his hair in 
two long bright braids, and the part in the center was 
accentuated by the narrow ochre line that followed the 
part from forehead to crown. Though surrounded by 
civilization, he clung to the garb of his tribe. On his farm 
he had an excellent home, with modern equipment, and he 
lived there happily with his wife, Mary Antelope. 

One day, while driving by Antelope's house, we noted a 
strange air of desolation. In the doorway sits Fenton 
Antelope, as immovable as a statute of Buddha. We note 
that his long black braided hair has been shorn, and he is 
the image of despair. We dismount and enter his abode 
and look about. Disorder and destruction are on every 
hand. Furniture is overturned and broken. In the 



82 The Romance of Oklahoma 

kitchen, all manner of crockery and utensils are shattered 
and scattered abooit. We retrace our steps amid the con- 
fusion and discover that his fine phonograph, (next to his 
wife his most valued possession), cannot be found. We 
ask him v^hat has become of it. He does not turn his 
head, but points to the bluff overlooking the river. We 
go and look. It is broken to bits on the rocks below. 

What did it all mean? We felt that something deeper 
than the blind instinct to destroy, born of savagery, was 
manifest in the act. Was it a symbol of abject woe? 
Was it an act of defiance, — a challenge to the Great Spirit, 
whose decrees had proved intolerable? But what could 
have caused such a cataclysm in the life of Fenton Ante- 
lope? We found no answer in the inscrutable face of the 
Indian, as, with set lips and sombre face he sat. 

We turned and drove away. Dovni the road, we heard 
the news. Fenton Antelope's wife had died, and the ruin 
of his home was the expression of his unutterable grief. 



PAINTING THE GOATS. 

My sister drew a claim in the opening of the Comanche 
and Kiowa lands. The claim was covered with small 
brush, but had also some splendid trees on it. In order to 
clear the land she bought about one hundred and forty 
Angora goats. Around one eighty acres she put a six 
strand barbed wire fence but the old cattle trails had been 
v/orn deep; so the goats crawled under the fence at the 
trails and wandered away at their own sweet will. We 
decided to mark the goats so that if they persisted in 
wandering we might identify them.. We procured a can 
of black paint, let two or three goats at a time into a small 
lot by the- corral, caught them and painted the right ear 
of each goat black. The first pelting rain, however, washed 
the paint off. 

— Bee C. Brooks. 



Miscellaneous 83 

THE PIN INDIANS. 

The Loyalist or Union Indians were called Pin Indians. 
This name was applied in derision by their enemies on 
account of the peculiar manner in which the members of 
their loyal secret society wore ordinary pins as emblems. 
The name was accepted and adopted by the loyalist tribes- 
men, most of whom were full bloods. The Keetoowha 
Society of the Cherokee Nation, is said to be a perpetu- 
ation of the Cherokee loyalist organization which existed 
at the close of the Civil War. 

— Bee C. Brooks. 

A YOUNG FINANCIER. 

"Is Captain Swift at home," inquired ten-year-old Ned. 

"Yes. Do you want to see him?" 

"Yes, I want to sell him these frogs. I have been trying 
all morning to give them away, and nobody would have 
them. Do you think he will buy them?" 

"Oh, I think so. I will call him." 

"Hello Ned, what have you there?" 

"Frogs. And I want you to buy them. Papa said he 
didn't want them, and to give them away ; and if I couldn't 
give them away, to find Captain Swift and sell them to 
him. Will you buy them?" 

"Ha, ha! Certainly. Here is half a dollar. Is that 
enough?" 

— Isabel Eastman Styll. 

HELP! HELP! 

A girl in her teens who was studying physiology for the 
first time, and coming to the chapter on common diseases, 
found the word "pneumonia." She read the description, 
symptoms of the disease, etc., and then arose to consult 
the teacher. 

'Teacher, what is the difference between "neumonia" 
and "P-neumonia?" 

— Annette Blackburn Ehler. 



84 The Romance of Oklahoma 

SELLING HIS DOG. 
By J. W. Echols. 

A small negro boy, bareheaded and barefoot, in patched 
overalls, was leading a half starved cur pup three or four 
months old, which he held secure with a hemp string 
composed of five or six pieces tied together. He met a 
physician on the walk, who, taking notice of the youngster 
stopped and asked if he would sell the dog. 

"Yas'sa, I'll sell 'em." 

"What will you take for him?" 

"Dun'no sa, what'le you gim' me?" ^ 

"I would like to know something about what he is good 
for before making you a price." 

"He's good fur everything, best dog I ever seen." 

Just then the scrawny pup jerked away, running across 
the street to another dog. 

"Come back heah Jack Johnson ; come back heah, sah, 
I'll beat 'chu to death if yu run off eny mo; be still sah, 
'tie I tie dis string; Mr. hep me hole 'em." 

The doctor held him by the ear until the lad tied his 
already knotty string. 

"Why do you call him Jack Johnson?" 

"Cause, dats his name, don't 'cher no Jack Johnson? 
He's cullud and dun whupped all de white men; want 'ta 
buy dis dog, I gotta go?" 

"Well make me a price on him," said the doctor very 
much amused and trying to detain him as long as possi- 
ble, for the purpose of hearing him talk. "Tell me what 
he is good for." 

"Dun tole yu he's good for everything." 

"Well, can he catch rabbits and coons?" 

"Yes sa, yes sa, he dun kotch coons and possums and 
rabbits, too; go away off in de woods by his self and tree 
um; and bokan bok 'tie yu cum and git um; dat's gist 
de way he's dun ever since he's a little bitta pup, I ain't 
telling you no lie, he show duz it." 

"Well, what will you take for him?" 



Selling His Dog 85 

Looking up at the Doctor, the sun beaming into his 
"cotton" eyes, he said: 

"I'd take five dollars," and again he ran over all the 
long list of the pup's accomplishments. Just then an old 
negro came along with a family wash on his back, evi- 
dently surmising what was taking place called out: 

"Give you a dollar for that pup, sonny." 

"All right sa, if dis man doan take 'em, he gwine 'ter 
gim'me five fer 'em." Turning hack to the Doctor he said: 
"Gon'na buy 'em Mister, I gotta go?" 

"Tell me where you live, I might want him pretty soon." 

"Fawty-sebum ninte street, sah ; soon as you gits de 
money, you kum on up da; if I ain't dun sole 'em, you can 
have 'em." With this he left the doctor standing as he 
and his pup went galloping up the walk. 

THE HONOR OF THE WEST. 

"I settled in Western Oklahoma. Our nearest railroad 
point was in Texas. Going there to meet my fatmily, we 
were water bound by a rise of Red River. The river 
stayed up for several days and there were about twenty 
wagons waiting at the ford. Nearly all of the men, on 
account of the unexpected delay, ran short of <money and 
provisions. Having just sold out back east, I had ready 
cash, and I lent small sums of from two to ten dollars to 
those who needed. The river went down at length, and 
we all crossed and went our separate ways. But within 
ten days, every dollar was paid back to me, some of the 
men driving twenty miles to bring theirs. But," he added, 
gloomily, "you couldn't do that now." 

PRIMITIVE COURT DAYiS. 

I attended the second term of court held in Mangum, 
going with Judge Brown across the country from our 
western ranch, sleeping on the prairie at night as was 
our custom in pioneer days. We camped near a famous 
"turkey roost" and Judge Brown awoke me before day 



86 The Romance of Oklahoma 

to see the turkeys fly away, as I had refused to believe in 
the fabulous numbers reported. He fired a shot and the 
noise of a million wings convinced me that they were as 
the sands of the sea shore. 

A murder case was tried, and the little shack was 
crowded for every one in town went to hear the closing 
arguments. 

Though they lived in dugouts, the ladies showed true 
western hospitality, and we dined out every day. The 
hotel was in two dugouts, and was kept by "Mammy Pear- 
son," a dear, lovable woman, the adopted mother of the 
cowboys. 

— Adele Hart Brown. 



